Australian skipper Ricky Ponting (right) and coach Timothy Nielsen shortly after the tourists arrived at the Norman Manley Airport yesterday. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

Australian captain Ricky Ponting expects the West Indies to put up a tough fight when the three-Test series against the home team starts at Sabina Park next Thursday.

Ponting was speaking shortly after the Australian team touched down at the Norman Manley Airport yesterday.

"An exciting tour" was what he predicted.

"It's always a great place to come and play in the West Indies," he said while pointing out Australia have "some good and not so good memories" in the Caribbean.

On their last tour, in 2003 West Indies scored a record 418 to win the final Test, after they lost the first three.

Ponting admitted that the tourists will be the hot favourites to dominate the Tests. "I expect to win the series, but it's going to be a tough tussle between two good teams," he said of the eighth-ranked West Indies.

Ponting was quick to point out that despite West Indies' low ranking, they are still have some quality players.

Game changing potential

However, like any Australian team, Ponting and his men have done their home work before arrival and this was evident when he noted that captain Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan all have the potential to change a game.

But, what struck him most about the West Indies team is the fact that they are more consistent in the bowling department.

"I think ... their bowling attack is a lot better than it was a couple years ago ... since the last time we played them, they got a group of bowlers who are together for some time now," Ponting said.

He hinted he made a good assessment of them in South Africa earlier this year.

"If you look back at that South African series, that was a series that could have been won by the West Indies, they really dominated some of those Test matches," he added.

But, according to Ponting, they have not only done their home work on the West Indies, but had a good preparation camp leaving up to this tour.

Preperation

"We had a camp up in Brisbane and it went well ... we tried to prepare ourselves for what we expected to be a very tough tour."

This, he said, was necessary because they are playing opponents in their home country so one would always expect them to play their conditions very well.

Test squad: Ricky Ponting (captain), Brad Hodge, Beau Casson, Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Douglas Bollinger, Mike Hussey, Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Stuart MacGill, Ashley Noffke and Andrew Symonds.