Matthew Hayden will use the animosity with Harbhajan Singh to drive him during this four-Test series in defence of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The veteran opener is pivotal to Australia's chances of success and must continue his outstanding record in this country to bolster a relatively inexperienced Test line-up.
There was unprecedented tension between the teams last summer when Harbhajan was in the centre of a racism row involving Andrew Symonds.
Hayden made his feelings about Harbhajan clear on radio, calling him an "obnoxious little weed", which poured fuel on the fire and earned him a reprimand from Cricket Australia after a marathon disciplinary hearing.
Hayden attempted to play down the personal feelings, but certainly did not attempt to deny them.
Harbhajan has been making it clear since the Australians arrived that he was not out to make friends, although he has promised to tone down some of the behaviour that has made him the most reported player in world cricket today.
"In a lot of ways, to me off-field, if that's affecting him that's a good thing for Hayden because I don't feel like I'm harbouring any massive resentment," Hayden said.
"I think he's a very, very good bowler and I think it's challenging every ball to play well against him. Over the years those kinds of tensions have always made me play better and I'll certainly be using that to my advantage.
"It's going to have Test-match tension and I don't feel threatened by that. The only thing that really threatens me is what balls he can deliver to get me out.
"To me that's been a great source of motivation."
Hayden, 37 this month, has an outstanding record in India.
He has averaged 61 from seven Tests with a top score of 203 and 54.50 in 15 one-day matches, as well as dominating in the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament earlier in the year.
Hayden believes the battle in India is more mental than physical, which has much to do with how players deal with the conditions.
He pointed to the surprising 96-run last-wicket partnership between century-maker Mike Hussey and number 11 Stuart Clark during the drawn four-day match against a Board President's XI in Hyderabad, which ended on Sunday.
Hussey made 126 not out to save the tourists from embarrassment in their first innings. Clark was the next top scorer with 44.
"If you look at Huss and Stuie Clark, there are times when you look invincible in these conditions," Hayden said.
"Then there are other times when the momentum is against the batter and it looks like you're going to get out every ball.
"The conditions are relatively benign once you spend a lot of time in them.
"As a tail-end batsman Stuie never looked like getting out.
"He had a good mixture of attacking play and defensive strategy and he batted a bit of time.
"The tail can be really hard work to get out here, and we'll see that throughout the series no doubt."
Australia's preparation has been particularly modest, with only three batsmen passing 50 in three innings on tour so far. Hussey is the only batsman to score a century.
The bowling also struggled to make an impression during the tour match in Hyderabad. The first Test in Bangalore starts on Thursday.
However, Hayden believes just the fact that the Australians arrived a week earlier than scheduled in Jaipur to acclimatise following the abandonment of the Champions Trophy in Pakistan means they have been able to better prepare mentally.
"It's a great decision to come over early to get a few of the bugs out," he said.
"Although we haven't hit the ground running so far with our performances, just to get your mind into that space of how you're going to play the longer version of the game in this territory is brilliant."
Hayden contrasted this tour to the failure in England during 2005, when the Australians played a full one-day series and then went virtually straight into the Test series.
"We didn't hit that one-day series at all ready. We were underdone," he said.
"This time there hasn't been a lot of cricket so to be here early has been good to get ourselves involved."
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