In 2008-09 the Proteas clinched their first ever Test series victory on Australia soil when they prevailed 2-1 with wins in Perth and Melbourne.

The nucleus of their team hasn’t changed much since then and Hussey said that same skill coupled with more experience, makes the South Africans a more dangerous proposition heading into the first Test in Cape Town starting on Wednesday.

“Personnel wise they are very similar and I’d say some of their players have more experience,” Hussey said on Sunday, after Australia’s first hit-out at Newlands.

“Guys like AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla have played a lot more cricket, so they’re probably better in a lot of ways because they’ve been able to keep their personnel together for a while and got more experience.

“Having those ingredients makes them a tougher team and it’s reflected in the world rankings (No.2).”

Australia won the ODI series on tour 2-1 and were unlucky not to get more than a draw out of the two-match Twenty20 campaign.

But Hussey doesn’t believe their strong form so far translates into momentum going into the two Tests.

“No, I don’t really look at it that way. We’ve looked at it as three separate series really and there has been change-over in personnel as well,” he said.

“I was only part of the one dayers and we had a great series but we almost put a full stop against that and the new preparation started when we got to Potchefstroom for the Test series.

“New players, a different mind set going into Test-match cricket, so I think we start 0-0 really and we go from there.”

Hussey said Australia’s warm-up win over South Africa A in Potchefstroom last week was the ideal preparation.

Australia weren’t entirely happy with the pitch that was rolled out for them in the tour match, but Hussey said the extra life in the wicket would serve the batsmen well going into Cape Town and Johannesburg.

“It was a brilliant hit out, the bowlers got some good spells under their belt and certainly some confidence up,” he said.

“The batsmen certainly had to work very hard for their runs particularly in the first innings.

“I think it sharpened the batsmen up because there was plenty of pace and swing and invariable bounce.”