Shane Warne believes India deserve to be favourites for the upcoming four-Test series in Australia.
Warne was speaking after Australia suffered a 21-run loss in their rain-shortened 10-over Twenty20 International against South Africa on Saturday night at Gold Coast's Metricon Stadium.
That result came after a 2-1 loss in the ODI series, where Australia were thoroughly outplayed.
It's been 71 years since India first came to Australia for a Test series, but they've never tasted victory. The closest they came was a 1-1 draw back in 2003-04. That season, Australia were without both Warne (suspension) and Glenn McGrath (injury).
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There's a similar theme this summer, with the absence of suspended pair Steve Smith and David Warner.
With Australia's two best batsmen sidelined, Warne feels that India are in the box seat to win their first Border-Gavaskar trophy down under.
“For the first time that I can remember India come to Australia in the Test matches as favourites,” Warne said on Fox Cricket.
“I think (Australia’s) batting is in disarray in all forms of the game. They need to do something about it pretty quickly.
“India, they smell blood and they don’t fear Australia.”
India currently holds the ICC world No.1 Test ranking, but that status can be called into question when looking at their recent results away from home.
They suffered a 2-1 defeat to the Proteas back in January, and a 4-1 loss to England in September.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli urged his team to learn the lessons from the England series and improve against Australia.
"It's up to the individuals to take ownership of that responsibility and the things that are explained, that are laid out as expectations from team culture point of view," Kohli said prior to his side's departure to Australia.
"That can only be achieved when individuals go and work on those things.
"There were a lot of things we sat down and discussed after England, what went wrong. To be honest, we all felt there was not much that went wrong. Whatever was not right was very extreme also.
"We played good cricket, but the mistakes were also very extreme, that's why we lost that many number of games rather than winning those moments and winning the games.
"Individuals need to take more responsibility, show more character in such situations and assess it, and then find a solution rather than thinking that the solution will appear from somewhere. Those are the things we are really keen on, going now in our next venture and especially in Test cricket."
Prior to the first Test in Adelaide on December 6, India will battle Australia in three Twenty20 Internationals.
The first of those will be played at the Gabba on Wednesday night.