Confident Aussies set for tough series

World Cup cricket champions Australia arrived in the Caribbean yesterday expecting a tough battle from Brian Lara's West Indies over the next two months.

"It's always a very hard-fought contest and we don't expect anything different this time," coach John Buchanan said during the team's two-hour stop-over before heading to Guyana.

"We have just come off a World Cup win. That's history. It's now time to play some very good Test cricket and that's what we want to do from the first Test."

The tourists arrived without ace fast bowler Glenn McGrath, who is returning to Australia to be with his ill wife.