Australia's Test team have lost their intimidation factor, South African batsman JP Duminy says.
But he says that's more due to his growing comfort at Test level rather than any fault of Australia.
The 32-year-old admits he was intimidated by the Australians when he made his Test debut in Perth in 2008.
"I was a young kid then. It was my debut Test and playing against guys like Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden was quite intimidating, to be honest," Duminy told reporters in Adelaide on Friday.
"The difference for me now, I am more established than I was then.
"So you're coming into a Test series like this with a little bit more confidence, a little bit more stability in your role in the team and how you play Test cricket.
"I think that is the difference. It's not necessarily the opposition. It's more your sort of idea of how you see Test cricket and your role within the team."
Duminy, a veteran of 36 Tests, will be a key player in the Proteas' quest to win the three-match series starting in Perth on November 3.
And until then, Duminy said the tourists would ignore any chatter about Australia's supposed vulnerability and selection concerns.
"We pretty much just concentrate on staying in our bubble," he said.
"We have got obviously 10 to 14 days of training leading up to that first Test so we focus on that. And whatever XI we face in that first Test, we are going to have to prepare accordingly."
Duminy said Australia demanded respect, deeming South Africa's recent 5-0 limited-overs series triumph against them as irrelevant.
"We are coming into the series with a bit of confidence obviously on the back of our one-day series," he said.
"But we understand that it's a clean slate. This is Test cricket. It's totally different from one-day cricket.
"We are not looking at what the expectations are. As I said, we are staying in our bubble, we are staying with what we want to try and concentrate on and that is our preparation leading into that first Test.
"There might be a lot of banter being thrown around in the media. That is not something we want to focus on."
