Ricky ready for India

Australian captain Ricky Ponting is confident his new look 15-man squad is up to the sizable task awaiting them on their four-Test tour of India.

Speaking at Sydney Airport on Sunday evening, Ponting labelled the highly anticipated tour a 'great challenge' for his inexperienced side and conceded he himself feels like a new face following an eight-week absence after wrist surgery.

But Ponting is hopeful the injection of fresh faces won't bring an end to Australia's recent good record on the sub-continent.

"They've (India) got an experienced side and they'll play their conditions well," Ponting conceded.

"But the flip side of that is whenever we've toured the sub-continent in the last 10 years we've played and held our very high standards that we've had in most other conditions around the world."

"And whether it's been Test or one-day cricket against India in India of late we've done very, very well, I know the build up once we get there's going to be massive … but it's up to us to make sure that we don't let anybody down, most importantly ourselves."

Ponting concedes not entering the series as undisputed favourites is a little strange but insists his side's approach will not be altered by external opinions.

"We never look at any match or any series as us being any better or any different than anybody else we just try and play the best cricket that we can and try and turn situations in games into winning ones for us," he explained.

"It'll be exactly the same this time around, I think our tactics over there last time were sensational we really did have the Indians under a lot of pressure with bat and ball and that's what we'll be about this time as well."

Meanwhile, the 33-year-old expressed his sympathies to the victims of the overnight bombing in Pakistan.

"It is an absolute shame that things like this continue to happen in Pakistan because believe it or not as players you want to travel all round the world and you want to play in all the conditions around the world," Ponting said.

"Unfortunately right now at the moment there's no way that we can be touring Pakistan."

Ponting has every confidence in the security measures in place for the Indian tour and confirmed the safety of the touring party would continue to be monitored throughout.

"With the state of the world and the state of some of the countries that we're playing in, it's vitally important that me as captain and all the players in this national team are kept in the loop as much as possible and as often as possible," he said.