Our attack has improved - Gilchrist

Adam Gilchrist believes Australia's attack is much better prepared to challenge India's strong batting line-up than when the teams last met in Australia in 2003-04. During that visit India drew the series 1-1 and they posted strong first-innings totals of 409, 523, 366 and 705.

Australia were without Shane Warne, who was sitting out because of his drugs ban, and Glenn McGrath, who had an ankle injury. Those two stars are now retired but Gilchrist is confident that any of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Shaun Tait, Mitchell Johnson and Brad Hogg can trouble India this time around.

"They [India] have done well before without those two guys around, but I sense we've got a much more mature bowling group this year than what we did four years ago," Gilchrist told the Weekend Australian. "We have no doubt teams will feel a bit more confident without those guys in the line-up and that's the challenge for us."

During the 2003-04 campaign Australia used five fast men - Lee, Jason Gillespie, Andy Bichel, Brad Williams and Nathan Bracken - and Stuart MacGill struggled to claim wickets. But Gilchrist was pleased with the way Australia's new-look attack handled the recent Tests against Sri Lanka and he felt the bowling performances of four years ago would not be repeated.

"The reality [of missing Warne and McGrath] kicked in during those first two Tests [against Sri Lanka]," he said. "I thought our bowling efforts didn't wane at all. The guys stepped up in the absence of those two legends.

"[India] certainly presents a bigger challenge because we're playing against a more reputable batting line-up that will be confident against a team without those two players. There will be some hard slogs, but I think we've got the maturity there now to deal with it."