Confident Australia can pull off series win in India - Harris

MELBOURNE : A confident and wiser Australia are well-equipped to take the fight to India in a series that could literally be decided by a coin-toss, according to former test bowler Ryan Harris.

Winning in India has taken on Holy Grail proportions for Australia, whose last series victory in the subcontinent was a 2-1 triumph in 2004.

Since then, Australia have lost all four series there but came close in a 2-1 tussle in the last one in 2017.

With the core of the 2016/17 squad remaining but embellished with more batting depth, Harris said Pat Cummins' team had every reason to fancy their chances in the four-test series starting in Nagpur on Thursday.

"Much of the squad were over there last time so I think that will be a big plus in terms of experience," Harris told Reuters.

"That will definitely help them.

"The momentum is good. The majority of them are going over there in form.

"I think they’re in a really good position if they’re going to do it with this squad they have."

Harris said Australia's positive mindset under Cummins's leadership also put them in good stead for a long and taxing tour on vastly different pitches to home.

"He’s a pretty positive sort of person," he said of Cummins.

"That’s really rubbed off since he’s taken over.

"They’re a tight group and I think the teams that I played in that had success were the same."

However, much will need to go right for the world's top-ranked test team to beat India at home.

The toss will be crucial, suggested Harris, given India's successful blueprint of batting big and then dismantling teams with spin on crumbling pitches in the fourth innings.

"If India's batters put 350 or 400 on the board first up, you’re almost in survival mode to try to save the game, which is really hard to