Leg-spinner, prolific number eight, inspirational captain, poker player, golfer and now spin doctor - ladies and gentleman we give you...Shane Warne. His latest views on Australia are worth listening to given that they are about to start a Series against India, says Ralph Ellis.

Shane Warne has always been the king of spin with a cricket ball. Turns out he's not so bad at the PR version of spinning too.

Warne turned up in London yesterday with a new book to promote, and what better way to do it than follow an old Aussie tradition of slagging off the Poms! It's guaranteed him big headlines this morning with the forecast that for all Kevin Pietersen's new promise as England captain, Australia will win the Ashes series 5-0 next summer.

In the process he's been gloriously dismissive of the late summer revival: "It was exciting, I suppose, to win a Test in a dead rubber but I wouldn't get your hopes up too much."

When you've enjoyed that bit of banter, though, there's some serious information in the back end of his interviews as Australia prepare to start a new Test series in India tomorrow morning. Popular wisdom is that without Warne the Aussies have lost their sharpest cutting edge, and an ageing side is about to lose its status as world number ones.

Warne, though, reckons the current side is actually stronger than the great teams of the past 15 years who have dominated the global stage. "I don't think we're in decline at all, I think we are getting stronger," he says. "Our batting is very strong and if a spinner can come on the scene I think we have just as good a side as we have ever had."

Finding a spinner, however, is much easier said than done - especially one with the quality to ease the loss of Warne from the team. And things haven't gone so well for the Aussies in that department so far. Jason Krejsa got taken for 199 runs in 31 overs in a warm up game against the Board Presidents XI, and as a result the selectors have called up Cameron White whose leg spin bowling is normally used mainly in one-day games to contain runs rather than take wickets.

That's one of the main reasons why India are favourites to win the series at [2.2]. But there are reasons to ignore the issue and focus more on Warne's conviction that the rest of the team isn't just as good as ever, but better. Former Australian fast bowler Geoff Lawson, currently the Pakistan coach, recently suggested that seam rather than spin would be the deciding factor in India. And in that department Ricky Ponting's team are much better served, and it's why I reckon they are well worth backing at [3.15] to remind everybody why they are still officially the world's best cricket team by winning the series.

Incidentally a draw is [2.26] favourite for the first Test when it starts in Bangalore tomorrow, with India and Australia both [3.55] to win it.

Five things you might not know about Shane Warne

1. The archetypal Aussie, born in Ferntree Gully, Victoria, he's actually half German - that's where his Mum came from.

2. Before becoming a cricketer he played for St Kilda football club, but never got beyond the reserve team

3 His Test debut gave no clue of what was to come, taking 1-150 off 45 overs

4. At one time he owned six cars including two Ferraris. Since splitting up from his wife he's cut that down to one BMW

5. He has scored the most Test runs (3,154) of any cricketer who has never scored a Test century. His closest was getting out on 99 to what was later proved to be a no ball

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