Kane Williamson knows the enormity and unique nature of Australia's next challenge well.
Williamson made a century on his Test debut in India, while he captained New Zealand during an unsuccessful trip to the subcontinent four months ago.
NZ lost that Test series 3-0, with Williamson missing the second match because of a viral illness.
Williamson has a pertinent piece of advice about facing the world's top-ranked Test side on their soil: don't assume every dusty deck will play the same way.
"It's a very tough place to tour. Australia are a very good side and they'll have to adapt quickly, and well," Williamson said after his side's ODI series win over Australia.
"It also depends a lot on the surfaces they may come up against.
"They (India) have 13 Test matches at home this summer and a lot of the surfaces have been very, very different.
"The toss is quite important as well."
Pune, Ranchi and Dharamsala are hosting matches during the four-Test series that starts on February 23. All three have never hosted a Test.
Australia's Test squad members who took part in the recent trans-Tasman ODI series will fly direct from Auckland to Dubai on Monday night, one of the world's longest commercial air routes.
They shared a customary post-series beer in the Hamilton changerooms with the hosts prior to boarding a bus to Auckland on Sunday night. The topic of India no doubt came up in a few conversations.
"They've spent a lot of time in India. They know what to expect," Williamson said.
"I'm sure they'll fight hard."
Australia are playing an intra-squad match in Dubai to help prepare for India.
Aaron Finch, who served as stand-in skipper during the recent ODI series, ihsisted Peter Handscomb, Glenn Maxwell and Shaun Marsh would be prepared for India despite arriving a week later than Usman Khawaja and Matt Renshaw.
"They've got a three-day game in Dubai so there's still plenty of time for them to get their heads around batting in the subcontinent and Test cricket," Finch said.
"The transition will be fine for them, it'll be a case of just batting, batting and batting (in Dubai).
"For the quicks (Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood) it's a totally different game altogether but the basics are still the same, so I think they'll be fine going into that Test series. They'll still take a lot of confidence (from the ODI series)."
Australia have lost their past nine Tests in Asia and have won just one of their previous nine Test series in India.
