As they venture into Thursday's opening Test at the Gabba, the Indians are weighed down by historical baggage of winning just three of their 28 Test matches in Australia going back to the 1947-48 Bradman era.

Saurav Ganguly's tourists have enlisted the help of Gordon to speak with the team before the first of four Tests against Australia, amid general consensus that they will again not match it with the all-conquering Aussies.

The Indians' lead-up form has caused alarm, having conceded over 800 runs in two unfinished innings to Victoria and a Queensland academy team.

Australian-based Gordon worked with the Indians at the World Cup in southern Africa last February-March when they got to the final, only to lose heavily to Australia.

Gordon is stressing that the Indian team treat the Australian tour as a fresh start.

"It's a new tour, a new project. You learn from the last one but the next one's a new one," Gordon was quoted in press reports here Wednesday.

"They've certainly come here determined to respond to the critics. Some of that is illegitimate. Some of it is based on pure statistics."

India have not won a Test series outside the sub-continent since 1986 and in seven previous tours of Australia they have won just three of 28 Test matches, their last victory coming in 1981.

Gordon, who helped Australia to the 1999 World Cup triumph in England, said statistics can pigeonhole teams.

"You can look hard at statistics and you can pigeonhole teams by their performances away from home, but this bunch I know has improved in their touring," he said.

"There's a trend that would suggest Indian players are best equipped to handle Indian conditions, and only Indian conditions, so when they come to different locations, different wicket conditions, different cultures, it is a bit of an adaptation that they haven't responded well to in the past.

"These players are more of a globalised sort now, they're on tour all the time, so the gap is narrowing.

"It's not so much of a culture shock any more.

"They're ready for this tour and they're certainly looking forward to it.

"That missing ingredient that they need to work on mostly is belief that they can produce and be competitive on the day.

"These guys know they can. They've got that much ability and talent in their team."

Skipper Ganguly has paid tribute to Gordon's work with the Indian players.

"We've been interacting with him for some time. He's done good for us, the mind is very important and in the writeups in the newspapers about this game is that it's all about mind games and that's one area where you have to be tough to go ahead."