Mitchell Johnson hopes to retain his spot in the Test attack throughout the tour © AFP Enlarge

Mitchell Johnson is hoping reverse-swing can be his key weapon in India as he aims to hold his place in Australia's Test team and fight off a challenge from Doug Bollinger. Johnson's position is the least secure of Australia's three starting fast men and he is not expecting any real help from the new ball during the four Tests.

"I've sort of, not given up on the swing thing, but I think in these conditions I'm probably not going to get too many opportunities to swing the new ball anyway, so that's when the reverse will come into it for me,'' Johnson told AAP. "I had been working on basically trying to get it through to the keeper and bowl the way I have in the past."

Johnson had an excellent one-day tour of India this time last year but his Test appearances have been no more than solid. He struggled in the West Indies this year, where he sprayed deliveries both sides of the wicket, and he was stripped of the new-ball duties.

"Looking at the West Indies tour I probably didn't have the best tour there," Johnson said. "But towards the end of it I started to get a bit more rhythm and where I was bowling there was coming in behind Brett [Lee] or Stuart [Clark] and just trying to bowl straight and hit the deck."

The persistent wicket-taking of Johnson's fellow left-armer Bollinger will place Johnson under pressure during the upcoming series. Bollinger, an unused backup on the Caribbean trip, has impressed in his few games in India, both with Australia A and in the weekend's practice match in Jaipur.

"I like to bowl as straight as I can and I like to swing the ball as much as I can, whether it be natural or Irish," Bollinger said. "That can be a very beneficial thing over here because the wickets don't change as much and they're a lot flatter than Australia."