BANGALORE, Sept 29: Batting ace Sachin Tendulkar said on Monday Australia would be tough to beat in the upcoming Test series in India despite their lack of experience.

Only four Australians – skipper Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke and Simon Katich – have played a Test in India but Tendulkar said the new players had a lot of first-class experience.

“They have not played Test cricket in India but that does not mean they cannot deliver,” Tendulkar said ahead of the four-match series starting on Oct 9.

“They (Australia) still have a lot of players who have played first-class cricket back home. They have played a lot of cricket and we’d like to respect that. We don’t want to be caught off-guard.”

Tendulkar added that the Indian team management needed to plan a lot in the coming days on how they wanted to approach the series against a tough opposition.

“We’d like to focus on our performance,” stated Tendulkar, who needs just 77 runs to surpass retired West Indies captain Brian Lara’s world record tally of 11,953.

“It’s India v Australia. It’s not certain individuals v certain individuals. Both the countries are competing against each other.”

Tendulkar already holds three world records – maximum number of runs in One-day Internationals (16,361) and most centuries in Tests (39) and ODIs (42).

The batting star was recently declared fit for the Australia Tests after missing the one-day series in Sri Lanka last month due to an elbow injury.

Australia play their only practice game before the series in Hyderabad from Oct 2. The Bangalore Test will be followed by back-to-back matches in Mohali, New Delhi and Nagpur.

Meanwhile, Tendulkar played down security concerns for the Test series against Australia, saying cricketers will never be targeted in India.

Fears were raised after 25 people were killed and more than 100 wounded as bombs went off across New Delhi in recent weeks.

“I don’t think it bothers us. We are confident nothing bad will happen,” Tendulkar told reporters at a training camp.

New Delhi is the venue of the third Test from Oct 29 and security has been increased around the Australian team.

Tendulkar declined to comment on Australia’s security fears but insisted Indian players had nothing to worry about.

“This is our homeland. In our homeland I don’t think anyone can harm us,” said the 35-year-old father of two, one of India’s most famous public figures. “We should be free to move wherever and whenever we want.”

Cricket Australia (CA) have said they will go ahead with the tour after the Indian board asked local organisers to increase security at all four Test venues.

“We are scheduled to get to Delhi in just under a month’s time but the advice we’re getting is that the things that need to be happening are happening,” CA spokesman Peter Young said. “We’re not aware of any advice that says we need to change our security processes.”

Australia cancelled a scheduled Test tour of Pakistan in March due to security concerns and were also one of the teams that forced the ICC Champions Trophy there to be delayed by a year.—AFP