The hosts may be bereft of their most challenging batting arsenal but still start off as firm favourites to come out victorious on account of the outstanding bowling line-up they possess, feels Ajinkya Rahane.

With the rise in India's fast bowling stocks and the hosts missing two of their best batsmen in Steve Smith and David Warner, there have been genuine claims of this being the Indian team's best opportunity to come out triumph down under for the very first time in their history.

But the Indian vice-captain doesn't feel the same way and wanting to reaffirm that there is no extra pressure on the Virat Kohli led side, said, "I feel that any team that plays at home, they feel really good, and I feel that Australia are still the favourites to win the series."

"We are not going to take them lightly at all. Yes, they (will) miss Steve Smith and David Warner but I don’t think they are vulnerable."

"You see their bowling attack, they’ve got a really good bowling attack, and I think to win Test matches, you need to have a really good bowling attack. So I feel that Australia are really still the favourites," he added.

While there is an increased focus and intent from Australia to restrict the might of Virat Kohli, who scored 692 runs including four outstanding hundreds the last time he travelled to the country, Rahane cleared that the rest of the Indian batting line up isn't too perturbed by it and is geared up for the task themselves.

"When you do well as a team, you feel really good. This is a team sport … and it is the job of each and every bat to contribute for the team. And I think it’s important that we get those long partnerships together, in Australia that will really help us a lot," said Rahane, who himself scored a magnificent 147 at Melbourne during the last Test tour down under, "Last time here, we really enjoyed batting together(with Virat) a lot, especially at the MCG."

"Mitchell Johnson was really going after Virat Kohli and I was at the other end playing my game. Virat at the other end was really aggressive and going after bowlers. I was able to focus on my game, I still attacked but I was completely the opposite to Virat," he signed off.

(Inputs from Reuters)