Star middle-order batsman V V S Laxman feels world champions Australia are beatable and his team had the potential to turn the tables on them in the current tour Down Under.

"Their results show they are one of the best sides ever in Test cricket but then we feel they are beatable," he remarked after stroking an elegant 74 against Queensland Academy of Sports at Brisbane on Sunday.

"You have to look about your strengths instead of thinking about opposition's strong points. We certainly have the potential to do it.

"This team has really done well abroad for the past one and a half years or so. The team is improving and we are travelling a lot better than we used to do before."

Laxman preferred not to look at the negatives of this tour and instead declared he had his personal targets to contribute to the team's success.

"Look at it this way, (Sadagopan) Ramesh and Sachin (Tendulkar) got runs in the first game and Rahul (Dravid) looked very well in this game before he unfortunately got out.

"I have personal targets but it very much depends on the circumstances because I bat at number six. But I am really looking forward to doing well and playing match-winning knocks."

Since his return to international cricket, he has been averaging above 50 for the past two years and he would like to push up his present career average of 45.00. "I've played really well in the last two years but more than the average I want to play match-winning knocks for my country."

Laxman declared he had learnt a lot on the last tour of Australia in 1999-2000 even though the team itself suffered a disastrous 0-3 drubbing. "My game really changed after that tour. The wickets were different and I realised I could play more strokes. If you settle down, you could probably play more strokes in Australia than even in India!"

Laxman said he was really disappointed with his catching in the finals of the triangular series in Kolkata recently and hoped he had exhausted his bad luck in that game.

He felt good about his knock against Academy team on Sunday. "I'm happy with this first game as I was really disappointed at missing out in Victoria because of ill-health. The most important thing was I could occupy the crease and bat for four hours.

"This wasn't really a mediocre bowling. I thought they bowled really good line and length and the left-armer (Scott Bryant) really swung the ball very well on Saturday evening."

Laxman said those who missed out on a good outing in the first innings would love to have another crack on Monday.

"If set a target, we could also go for a win. It would be great to have a win behind us before the first Test."