Brisbane: So Australia are now ranked number one in Tests and ODIs. Whilst I think the jury's out on whether that's a fair barometer of how far they've come in just one season, India can expect no favours.


Australian paceman Mitchell Johnson gives England's Kevin Pietersen some lip service as umpire Kumar Dharmasena steps in during the Fourth Ashes Test in Melbourne last year. Pic/Getty Images

Learn to duck and hook — the Aussies will try to pound you into submission on pitches that they claim will we be just as challenging as the ones they encountered in India in 2013. There will be no talk of 'doctored' pitches because that is a termed only reserved for spinning pitches (when those claiming have no decent spinners!).

These will be hard and fast, no different to what Australia has always served up to just about every opponent since cricket began. Oh, there was a brief period when spinning pitches were prepared to counter the might of the West Indies in the 1980s — Allan Border spun Australia to victory once and Bob Holland did it again a few years later — but apart from that convenient aberration, expect the expected.