Australia will play the Twenty20 games on Saturday and Monday at the newly-built Pallekele International Stadium near Kandy, before taking on the hosts in five one-day internationals and three Tests.

"The Sri Lankan team is obviously a very strong one," said White, who is slated to return home after the Twenty20 games as he is not a part of the one-day and Test squads.

"I think they showed in England in the shorter formats they are in very good form, so I think the Sri Lankan team will be a very hard one to beat. We'll have to play well."

White, who has so far led Australia in just two Twenty20 matches, said he was enjoying the new role as captain.

"We've trained hard and I think our preparation is well on the way to having us in a very good spot come Saturday for the first game."

Sri Lanka skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan insisted that his team would not be taking Australia lightly despite the youthful look to the tourists' squad.

"Australia usually play very hard. They may be a bit inexperienced. But they are tough opponents," Dilshan said in Colombo on Tuesday.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011