'We need to restrict India's batting'

John Marshall Buchanan is on his second visit to India as coach of the Australian cricket team.

His first visit in 2001 was a major disappointment as Steve Waugh's side lost the series 1-2 after winning the first Test and dominating the second.

The 51-year-old Queenslander has not played international cricket, but since taking over from Geoff Marsh as Australia's coach in October 1999 has become one of the most successful coaches in the history of the game.

Under him, the Australians have dominated Test cricket, winning 43 of the 56 Tests played, for an overall win percentage of 76.79. Only India has proved a difficult barrier for them; the Aussies last won a Test series in this country in 1969-1970.

Buchanan spoke to Contributing Sports Correspondent Harish Kotian in Mumbai.

Will the 'Final Frontier' be captured this time?

I don't think we are here [in India] for the Final Frontier. Basically, we have come here just to win a Test series and we will do that if we just play the cricket we have been playing in Test matches for the last two years or so.

Also Read 'Batting will decide the series'

I don't think the showing in the Champions Trophy will affect either team. It's a knock-out tournament and, as such, it means that on certain days you perform well and on other days you don't. India and Australia didn't perform well on one particular day and so were knocked out of the tournament.

How big a blow is the absence of captain Ricky Ponting?

It's a major blow for us. He is our captain and our number three batsman. He is an inspirational character and we are going to miss him a lot. However, we have faced such situations before and coped with them. I expect the team to do the same again.

How different is this Australian team from the one that toured India in 2001?

We have a few new faces in our 16-member squad. We have got a very, very good squad, a really well-balanced squad; a mixture of age, experience and youth. I think the whole mix should work pretty well for us. It gives us options.

Is the Australian team relying mainly on fast bowling? Shane Warne is the only experienced spinner in the squad.

We will sort out our options. We have got the ability to look at either a pace bowling attack backed by a spinner, or a spin bowling attack backed by pace or a combination of both. They are important decisions we will reach before the first Test begins.

V V S Laxman has always scored heavily against Australia.

Yeah Yeah!! V V S Laxman and Rahul Dravid have been pretty heavy scorers against us, and Sachin Tendulkar also does the same. We recognise that they are quality players. It is just us going about our job. We need to restrict India's batting.

How do you plan to counter the Indian spinners, considering that Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble might be bowling together?

Well, it will be an easy answer to say that we did it very well in Sri Lanka. We had a very good tour of Sri Lanka and our batting clicked very well. Basically, we put together some very good strategies there and I don't see the conditions being much different in India.