Australia all-rounder Cameron White echoed skipper Ricky Ponting's view that India may be off-colour in the recent past but they would be a tough nut to crack at home in the forthcoming seven-match one-day series starting in Vadodara on Sunday.
"As Ponting said the Indians will be very hard to beat on their home soil and I too feel the same. I think it will be a good, hard and exciting cricket series between the two countries," White, the captain of Victoria Bushrangers, told reporters ahead their Champions League semifinal match against domestic rivals New South Wales Blues.
"Even the Indians will get the support of thousands of home crowd," he said.
Earlier, leaving for India Ponting had on Monday said that India are a much tough opponent at home than when they are travelling.
White's views were backed by Test regular Simon Katich, who though feels that Ponting's men are a confident lot coming into the series, especially after their recent success in England and South Africa.
"I think the guys are very confident. They have performed very well in England as well as in the Champions Trophy in South Africa. Some of the guys in the team have played in IPL and in Champions League and know the conditions well," Katich, who is the skipper of NSW, said.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday's first semi-final encounter of the cash-rich Twenty20 tournament, both the NSW and the Victoria skippers feel the match would be a hard-fought affair but warned against expecting a high-scoring affair in the low and slow Feroz Shah Kotla wicket.
"It will be interesting to play Victoria in neutral venue. We have had lot of battles and good rivalry, so expect a tough game tomorrow," Katich said.
"Hopefully, with Brett (Lee) in our side, we will draw more Indian support. But the match would be a low-scoring one because the earlier matches have shown that bowlers will have upperhand on this wicket," he added.
White also expressed similar feelings, saying, "We know each other very well, the only thing is that we will be playing on a different venue than where we usually play each other. But it will be a hard pressure game."
