Australia skipper Steve Smith believes a Test series victory over an all-conquering India side on their home soil could provide the kind of memories that would inspire the country's cricketers for generations to come. Top-ranked India are on a brilliant run, unbeaten in 19 Tests over a 16-month period with South Africa, New Zealand, England and Bangladesh all vanquished at home, while trips to Sri Lanka and West Indies also culminated in victories. By contrast, Smith's side were thrashed 3-0 in Sri Lanka and lost the first two Tests of a three-match home series against South Africa before wholesale changes led to a consolation win in Adelaide and the new charges went on to sweep aside Pakistan. Smith believes Australia have learned from those defeats and are now a much improved side. "You probably learn more from losing games than you do from winning, so I guess the last year has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride in regards to results," Smith told reporters in Mumbai on Tuesday, a week ahead of the first Test. "I think this team has come a long way," he added as he looked forward to the four-match series. Obviously, this is going to be a very difficult tour and I am excited by that challenge. All of the guys are really excited about what's to come in the next six weeks. It's a great challenge to play here in India. "We know that if we can pull something off and win a series here, we will look back in 10-20 years and it will be some of the best times of our lives. It's a great occasion to play here in India." The Australia captain was confident he had the attack to trouble an Indian batting line-up spearheaded by an in-form home skipper Virat Kohli and his bowlers had worked on game plans to succeed on slow, turning wickets. "I am confident, I think we have got a good mix of bowlers," Smith said. "It's important here to make sure you are bowling consistent areas and letting the wicket do the work, and getting the natural variation out of the wickets. "I think reverse-swing is going to be incredibly important in this series as well. Our two big quicks — Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc — are very good reverse-swing bowlers. "They relish the challenge of playing against the best players in the world, and India have some incredibly good batters. So they are excited by the challenges of playing here as well." The world's second-ranked team have had a training camp in Dubai to prepare for the tour and Australia will also play a three-day practice match against an India A side from Thursday, before they head to Pune for the opening Test from Feb. 23. Smith said he also needed to maintain a fine balance between attack and defense to find success in India. "It's about knowing the right periods and timing the periods right when to sort of take the foot off the pedal and to really go hard," the 27-year-old said. "I think I have learned a little bit of that in Sri Lanka." India unchanged for first two Australia Tests India have kept faith with the 16-man squad that cruised to victory in the one-off test against Bangladesh for the first two matches of the home series against Australia starting next week. The world's top-ranked Test side are unbeaten in their last 19 contests and completed a comprehensive 208-run win against their South Asian neighbors on Monday in an ideal warm-up for the four matches to come against Australia. Fast bowler Mohammed Shami, who missed the last two Tests of the recent five-match series against England with a leg injury, was not considered fit enough for selection to the side named on Tuesday. Batsman Rohit Sharma, who injured his thigh during the one-day international series against New Zealand in October, only recently resumed training after undergoing surgery in England and was also deemed short of match fitness. Uncapped left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav replaced injured leg-spinner Amit Mishra in the squad for the Bangladesh Test and he retained his place for the first two Tests against the second-ranked Australians. Mishra hurt his knee while fielding during India's Twenty20 win over England in Bengaluru on Feb. 1. Pune will make its debut as a Test venue for the series-opener from Feb. 23, before the sides move on to Bengaluru and two more new Test venues in Ranchi and Dharamsala. Squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund, Hardik Pandya.
