Tale of two spinners to turn first Test

India's Ravichandran Ashwin has been backed to overcome the curse of foreign spinners this summer while Australian spin star Nathan Lyon has been labelled "the key" to unlocking the threat of the home side's imposing pace attack.

Australia has been a graveyard for touring slow bowlers since the 1990s, particularly for finger spinners like Ashwin; in the past 25 years, England's Graeme Swann (22 wickets at 53), India's Harbhajan Singh (nine wickets at 73) and Sri Lankan Muthiah Muralidaran (12 wickets at 75) have all been hammered on bouncy Australian surfaces.

And just last year, England's Moeen Ali (five wickets at 114) joined the long list of touring spinners unable to translate his strong record at home into success down under.

Ashwin also has an uninspiring record from six Tests in Australia, where his bowling average (55) and strike rate (97) are double what they are on turning pitches of home.

But teammate Cheteshwar Pujara says the 32-year-old's recent experience abroad, including stints with Worcestershire in English county cricket, will make him a far more dangerous proposition than he was when India toured four years ago.

"I always say that he's a clever bowler," Pujara said ahead of the first Domain Test in Adelaide, starting on Thursday.

"He reads the batsmen really well. And if you see his recent bowling, I think he's made a lot of changes … he's made some adjustments which have helped him.

"He's also played some county cricket and he's played enough cricket in England, which is obviously overseas and different conditions and not much help for the spinners.

"So I think playing in Australia, he knows what he has to do. He's very confident now and whatever adjustments he has to make, he's already done it."

Only a handful of foreign spinners have proven even mildly effective in Australia in recent years, with Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq (14 wickets at 34.14) and England's Peter Such (11 wickets at 29.36) the only visiting off-spinners in the past 25 years to have taken more than five wickets at a cost of less than 35 runs apiece.

And one has to go back to the 1960s and 1970s and West Indian great Lance Gibbs (59 wickets at 33) to find a visiting off-spinner who's truly thrived on Australian soil.

Lyon has also enjoyed slightly more success abroad than at home, but his 139 Test wickets at 33 prove that finger spinners can succeed on bouncy Australian pitches that don't offer much spin.

The 31-year-old was Australia's match-winner in the corresponding Test four years ago, his career-best 12-wicket haul sealing an emotional victory just a week after the tragic passing of teammate Phillip Hughes.

And Aussie paceman Josh Hazlewood says Lyon's ability to bowl tireless spells from one end, allowing Australia's star quicks to rotate through at the other, makes the home side's imposing pacemen even more threatening.

"He's the key for me," Hazlewood said of Lyon.

"It worked in the Shield game (against Queensland two weeks ago). Nath bowled pretty much from one end after the new ball and we filtered through from the other end.

"You hardly hit a run off him and he takes wickets.

"It's pretty key to have him the other end. He makes that group what it is."

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: First Test, Adelaide Oval

Dec 14-18: Second Test, Perth Stadium

Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Chris Tremain

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar