Aussie manager terms India tour toughest

As the Australian cricket team prepares to leave the shores for a seven-week tour of India on Tuesday, team manager Steve Bernard is looking at it as "the toughest of all, the toughest as, by far, Pakistan is a doddle by comparison".

They leave Melbourne tomorrow afternoon on an optimistic note after a summer of perfection. Not just the players, even coach John Buchanan told the Sydney Morning Herald, "we want to go over there, want to win the series 3-0 and we go confident enough to believe we can do this. It is just how well we harness the tremendous amount of raw material at our disposal".

A dossier on Indian players and playing conditions has been prepared with statistics and summations on individual strengths and weaknesses reinforced by information from the Zimabweans, who toured India before coming to Australia.

This will be Buchanan's second visit to India. The last time he only had a stopover at Calcutta airport. He told the Herald in Sydney, "it (team) is a very unified and harmonious group, a very important factor while we are there and the undoubted talent through the line. In a technical sense, I think we need to solidify No 1, 2 and 3 in the batting order. Michael Slater and Mathew Hayden began together as an opening combination last year and produced some good starts. We need more from them and we need Justin Langer to rekindle the flame and what he exemplified from the Hobart Test onwards into the tour of New Zealand last season.

"The other factor will be how well our quick bowlers adapt to the conditions. That way, I think we can expose the Indian batting with the new ball, which would allow the spinners, Shane Warne and Colin Miller to come into their own," Buchanan said.

He said the obvious other weakness was to adapt to the Indian environment. "While most of the players have been there, what I understand it is still overwhelming: the culture, the people, the heat just everything about cricket is quite overwhelming. It's how well in the end we adapt to those conditions which will be a telling factor."

Australian players had begun discussing India in New Zealand last year - ice baths, ice vests, nutrition aspects, type of training and so on. Even while playing against the West Indies and Zimbabwe, their one eye was on India. "It seems the players just can't wait to be on Indian soil whatever be the distractions and conditions," Buchanan said.