After Harbhajan Singh, Indian cricket great Sachin Tendulkar has given India an edge over Australia for the upcoming series which will be played in latter's backyard.

Despite Australia hosting India, Virat Kohli and co are favorites to win the series because of a full strength side and on the other side, a weak Aussie squad without Steve Smith and David Warner.

Talking about the series with CricketNext, Tendulkar said this is India's best opportunity to win a Test series in Australia considering the hosts are lacking in experience. "Possibly our best chance to go out there and beat them," he said. "If you see the Australia teams in the past and compare them to this one, yes we have a very good chance.

"I mean playing cricket at the highest level, I don't think it is at the highest level at this stage. I think they have had better sides in the past. They have had better players with more experience, this is considered an inexperienced side.

"They are kind of getting back together and forming a solid unit. But Australians are known for being competitive and I won't be surprised if they put up a competitive fight. To go out there and challenge them is also not going to be easy but we have the ammunition to go out there and challenge them.

"We have good fast bowlers, quality spinners. We have good batters. You win Test matches when you score a lot of runs on the board."

Tendulkar believes Indian batsmen will have to be a little patient to score in Australian conditions. He said the pitch has bounce and once the Kookaburra ball loses its hardness, India will make good use of it.

"I think when you go to Australia, especially playing with Kookaburra it's the first 20-25 overs that one needs to respect the hardness of the seam, the hardness of the ball,” he said. “After the ball has worn off, then the wickets are beautiful to bat on.

"I would say we need to bat the first 25 overs differently, respect the hardness of the ball. And later on, most of our guys are big shot players and they like attacking approach. Australian surfaces are perfect for that."

Virat Kohli is scoring like a run-machine and still hasn't quenched his thirst for runs which is a plus point for India. With a batsman like Kohli in their side, India will have a good opportunity to run over Aussies.

Talking about the 29-year-old Indian captain, Tendulkar said it's his hunger for runs which keeps him going. "I think it is his hunger....his temperament, the ability to asses the situation. Because there is no set formula to that," said Tendulkar. "Everyday you are going to have some different challenges and you have got to have that adaptability and flexibility in your mind to go out and asses and he does that rather well. And one good thing is he is hungry forever, that's how a batsman should be."

Kohli has a good record Down Under. He scored 692 runs in 4 Tests against Australia which India lost by 2-0.

The owner of 100 hundreds said Virat doesn't need to experiment with his batting. He is doing fine. "I think he is doing well, I don't think one needs to change when things are working. You only start talking about the game and you want to tick all the boxes when things are not going the way you want. Right now things are going rather well so why to try to disturb those things," Tendulkar said.

Tendulkar also talked about the hot topic in the Indian team. When everyone is raising finger on MS Dhoni, the former Indian batsman said Dhoni knows what needs to be done. 

"See Dhoni has always been a massive contributor in all forms of cricket. And he has taken the responsibility for a number of years,” he said. “So, whatever he decides, I always feel that a player having played for such a long time knows what he needs to work on and what he needs to do.

"And I would like to believe that MS having played for so many years knows exactly what is going on and knows exactly what needs to be done."

About World Cup 2019, Tendulkar says India is almost prepared for the major event. "I think barring a couple of spots, we have more or less a settled team," said Tendulkar. "Normally the teams have, you know, five, six or max seven core members and the rest keep circling....yeah so maybe one or two changes here or there but I think we are a settled team. Whatever I have seen or whatever I am hearing, I think we look a settled squad, a balanced squad."