They have lost just three of their past 46 Tests in their own conditions and have not lost a series since Sir Alastair Cook's England caused an upset back in 2012.

They have become masters of maximising home advantage and are fancied to do so again in the the next five games against England but Sharma warned against complacency.

Asked ahead of the first Test in Hyderabad if India were unbeatable as hosts, he laughed: "No, no, no, not at all!

"At the end of the day it's sport, there is a possibility that you can lose as well. In any sport, you win, you lose, by no means does whatever records we have in the past decade gives us the guarantee that we are going to come out here on top and win the series.

"We still have to play our best cricket. England obviously is a very good team, they play their Test cricket really well and were the last team to beat us here in our conditions.

"Obviously we are talking about a decade ago, different team members then to now, but still the quality in the team is there. We want to think that if we don't step up or don't show up well, we are going to find ourselves in trouble."

India are without star batter Virat Kohli after he withdrew from the first two Tests for personal reasons but have resisted the temptation to recall the vastly experienced Cheteshwar Pujara in his place.

That allows the exciting Yashasvi Jaiswal to remain in place at the top of the order, with Sharma happy to embolden the next generation.

"We did actually think about it (going for experience), but with all these younger players, when are they going to get the opportunity?" he said.

"You sometimes have got to bring certain players into your set up and give them favourable conditions… you don't want to expose or give them only foreign tour where they have not played before."