Australia captain Ricky Ponting sought to play down the differences between India and Australia ahead of the forthcoming series, and even floated the idea that he and India skipper, Anil Kumble, could come to an agreement over accepting the fielder's word in disputed catches.

That ideal was one of the factors that caused controversy in Sydney, following some debatable decisions, and Ponting admitted he did not expect Kumble to agree to such a pact.

"I will have a think about it over the next couple of days and see if I think it is the right idea to bring it up again," Ponting said. "Anil (Kumble) was the one who didn't want that (agreement on accepting the fielder's word) after the Sydney Test for one reason or the other.

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"It's like flogging the dead horse, to tell the truth. I go to every referee meeting before a series wanting to play the game like that, but almost every other captain in the world is not interested."

Talk of Australia's golden era coming to an end has also been rife ahead of the series with the world champions showing just four players in their squad to have played Test cricket in India before - Ponting, Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden and Simon Katich.

The Australians have seen a number of their stars retire over the past two years, however, Ponting was at pains to point out his team remain a force having not lost a Test series since the Ashes in 2005.

"Even in the last twelve or 18 months, when we were missing senior players, we have shown that our cricket is good enough to beat everybody," he said.

"We know the Indians will play well here and at the moment, they are the more experienced side than us, but if you look at the last series, where we were rebuilding, we were still able to play a brand of cricket that was good enough to win that series."

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