Indian captain Sourav Ganguly believes his "soft looking" team will assume the mantle of the world's best cricket side if it can take a series off Australia at home this summer.

India, led by the iron-cast concentration of Rahul Dravid, stunned the world champions with its first win in Australia for 23 years, beating Steve Waugh's team by four wickets to lead the series 1-0 with two matches to play in Melbourne and Sydney.

Ganguly said his players, while looking "soft and gentle" had hearts and minds of steel as they showed in winning the second Test at Adelaide Oval from an almost impossible position.

Australia, normally the hard-men of world cricket, now look increasingly brittle after two major batting collapses in this series and with a less than fearsome bowling attack.

Waugh admits it will be tough for his team to fight back from one down in his farewell series.

"India did it to us in the last series over there in 2001 ... so there's no reason we can't do it - but it's a big ask," Waugh said.

While many would beg to differ and the International Cricket Council ratings will disagree, with India currently ranked sixth, Ganguly was adamant his team would take over Australia's Test No.1 ranking if it can win the series.

"I said before that we're the second best side in the world at the present but if we can win this series yes definitely we can (be regarded as No.1)," Ganguly said.

He said his team wasn't about to capitulate from this position, warning Australia his men wouldn't be intimidated by the return of players like Brett Lee and, possibly, Glenn McGrath, before the end of the series.

"There's some tough characters in this side.

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