CENTURION (South Africa), Feb 14: Out-of-form India go into Saturday’s World Cup clash against Australia as rank underdogs, a tag captain Saurav Ganguly believes will work to his team’s advantage.

“It’s not a bad thing really, the pressure’s off and we can do our own thing,” Ganguly said ahead of the high-profile Group ‘A’ match against the reigning champions at the Supersport Park here.

“If we play as well as we are capable of, anything can happen. We can surprise a lot of teams, including Australia.”

India have played below their potential in recent times with the star-studded batting line-up, led by world record holder Sachin Tendulkar, performing in fits and starts.

The Indians faced acute embarrassment at not being able to last their full quota of 50 overs in their opening World Cup game against qualifiers Holland and won only due to the inexperience of the Dutch batsmen.

Shot out for 204 with seven deliveries to spare, the Indians bowled out the Dutch for 138 at Paarl on a wicket that assisted the spinners.

Australia, on the other hand, showed awesome form with a 82-run demolition of Pakistan on Tuesday despite losing the services of star leg-spinner Shane Warne an hour before the start due to a failed drug test.

Australia have won seven of their last 10 One-day Internationals against India, but the world champions are not taking victory for granted.

“We’re up against a side that has the potential to make a lot of runs,” said middle-order batsman Darren Lehmann, who is available for selection after serving out a five-match suspension due to racist comments made against the Sri Lankans last month.

“It’s been good for us to play a quality side like Pakistan first. They are up and down like yo-yos.

“They are sometimes really good, sometimes bad and India have sort of fallen into the same category in the last six months.

“But India are a very dangerous side and one we will be wary of. We will have to play well to beat them.”

India is banking on the unusually slow and dry wicket to assist their frontline spinners, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

“Slow bowlers will definitely have a big role to play against Australia,” Ganguly said. “And we have two of the best in the business.”

Off-spinner Harbhajan captured 32 wickets in three Tests against Australia two years ago, while leggie Kumble returned to form with 4-32 against Holland.

Lehmann admitted the slow Centurion wicket could work in India’s favour. “It probably suits them more than normal South African pitches,” he said.

“But having said that you’ve still got to play well. We’ve won in India before and they’ve won some games in Australia.”

If Tendulkar, one-day cricket’s leading batsman and a thorn for Australia in the past, is a worry for the champions, Lehmann did well to hide it.

“You’ve got to get 10 blokes out, he is just one of those guys,” Lehmann said.

“But obviously he’s an exceptional player. His record speaks for itself and he’s played well against us.”

Tendulkar will once again open the batting, like he did against the Dutch, in a bid to give India a rousing start in the initial overs.

His 52 on Wednesday made him the highest scorer in World Cup history, adding to the record number of runs (11,598) and centuries (33) in limited-overs cricket.

India, however, need the other batsmen like Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Ganguly himself to fire if Australia are to be given a fright.

Teams (from):

AUSTRALIA: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Michael Bevan, Andy Bichel, Jason Gillespie, Ian Harvey, Matthew Hayden, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Darren Lehmann, Jimmy Maher, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Andy Symonds.

INDIA: Saurav Ganguly (capaint), Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Dinesh Mongia, Parthiv Patel, Sanjay Bangar, Ajit Agarkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif.

Umpires: David Shepherd (England) and Asoka de Silva (Sri Lanka).

TV umpire: Brian Jerling (South Africa).

Match referee: Clive Lloyd (West Indies).—AFP