Losers by 179 runs in the first Test against India last week, Australia start the second tomorrow at Eden Gardens, where they have won twice and not lost in five meetings.

There is no doubting Australia's resilience, but recovering from a deficit in a three-Test series will be more difficult than in the longer series in England.

For one thing, the Indian batsmen have the measure of Shane Warne. Sachin Tendulkar made an explosive 155 not out at Madras, and Navjot Singh Sidhu and Rahul Dravid played Warne with comfort, even when he had just been brought into the attack.

Australia will be without Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie, who had such a bearing on the series in England but they can not bat as badly as in Madras, where wickets were surrendered with wanton or inept shots.

In the drawn three-day match against India A which ended on Sunday in Jamshedpur, where batting conditions were idyllic, Australia played all their Test batsmen except Mark Waugh, who had a good match at Madras.

Steve Waugh was the only century-maker at Jamshedpur, but the others all played substantial innings except for Ricky Ponting, whose place might be under threat from Darren Lehmann.