MELBOURNE, Feb 6: India captain Saurav Ganguly believes Australia leg spinner Shane Warne will still be a great bowler when he returns to action this month after completing his one-year drugs ban.

"I think he will be all right. It's an unwanted layoff but he will come back fresh," Ganguly told a news conference on Friday after his side lost the first final of the best-of-three series against Australia by seven wickets.

"It does help cricketers when you have a layoff from the game, especially someone like him who has taken so many wickets for Australia," Ganguly added.

The 34-year-old Warne is Test cricket's second-leading wicket-taker with 491 victims at an average of 25.71 in 91 matches.

One of Wisden's five cricketers of the 20th century, Warne was at the centre of the sport's biggest doping scandal when he took a banned diuretic shortly before last year's World Cup and flew home from South Africa without playing in the tournament.

"I don't think he should have a problem settling down," Ganguly said. "But at the same time he is going to Sri Lanka where they play spin well, they play him well in the sub-continent, so obviously it is going to be a tough tour for him to come back (next month).

"We have played him well over the years, whether it's in India or here. "But obviously you cannot take his record away from him against other sides. He's done wonders for Australian cricket and he's a great bowler."

Australia begin a three-Test tour of Sri Lanka this month and test cricket's top-ranked team are also due to tour India later this year. -Reuters