In what seemed an outrageous suggestion at the onset of the series Australia are on the brink of their first series loss at home for 11 years.

Australia are feeling the affects of playing without their talisman bowlers, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne along with the injured Jason Gillespie against a team regarded as one of the best batting sides in the game.

Much of Australia's hopes rest with paceman Brett Lee, back into the team after an injury and surgery to his ankle.

Lee has played in just four losing Australian teams in his 35 Tests and none of the losses were in live matches as they all came after a series had been decided in Australia's favour.

And Lee has only experienced a loss once on Australian soil, against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January this year when Australia had to do without injured pair Warne and McGrath.

Lee finds himself in a similar position here, leading a thin Australian attack, without McGrath, Warne or Gillespie.

"He wants that responsibility. He's talked about stepping up to the plate," Australian captain Steve Waugh said of Lee on Thursday.

"He's done that in one-dayers and the time is right for Brett to take up the challenge and to assume the mantle of strike bowler and he doesn't get an opportunity better than the Boxing Day Test."

Indian captain Saurav Ganguly acknowledged Lee's impeccable record against India 13 wickets at an average of 14.15 in his first two Tests four years ago but said the fast bowler would find it hard without McGrath or Gillespie bowling at the other end.

"He's got a bit of pace," Ganguly said. "But I've always thought of bowling like batting, you bowl in pairs. And without McGrath at the other end it's a different ball game.

"Suddenly he's become the spearhead of the attack."

Australia believe India are susceptible to pace but Waugh also wants Lee to be able to restrict runs particularly in-form Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.

"Brett's generally a strike bowler but you still want him to get the ball in the right places and not go for too many runs and he's good enough to do that."

By restricting scoring options, Australia hopes to pressure Dravid and Laxman into error.

However, against the exceptional concentration powers of Dravid and the hand-eye coordination of Laxman, he admitted it would be difficult.

"Like any players they're capable of making mistakes under pressure.

"We need to get them out we've talked about it and it's about executing plans. But with great players like those guys sometimes they overcome your plans.

"Sometimes you need a little bit of luck here and there and you just have to keep plugging away at your game plan."

While a lot rests on Lee as he bowls alongside either Brad Williams, who has played two Tests, or Nathan Bracken (one Test), Waugh said the whole team was facing its biggest challenge in years.

But with his team in the desperate situation where it cannot afford to lose, Waugh said Australia wouldn't go into its shell and would continue to play its cricket at full speed despite the batting collapse that led to India's four-wicket win in the second Adelaide Test last week.

"I think we'll play the same way we've always played. Just because we messed up once we're not to going to change the way we play.

"We know we could have batted better in Adelaide but you take the good with the bad and it's mostly been good over the past few years.

"We were disappointed with the way we played in that innings but it's happened very rarely over the past few years."

TEAMS

AUSTRALIA: Steve Waugh (captain), Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Simon Katich, Adam Gilchrist, Brett Lee, Andy Bichel, Brad Williams, Nathan Bracken, Stuart MacGill (one to be omitted).

INDIA (probable): Saurav Ganguly (captain), Akash Chopra, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Parthiv Patel, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan.