Gary Kirsten insists the India-Australia series will be a fiercely contested affair even if Andrew Symonds doesn't make the trip to the sub-continent.

Symonds' future in the Australia team is in doubt after he missed a team meeting ahead of the Bangladesh series following a fishing trip.

The all-rounder was one of the key figures during Australia's 2-1 Test series victory over India earlier this year. Symonds was also involved in the racial incident, which saw Harbhajan Singh charged by the ICC.

India coach Kirsten says the series will still be eagerly anticipated even if Symonds is left out of the Australia team.

"There is a lot of hype around him and the quality of player that he is, and also I gather there is a lot of tension around from what happened in the last series," Kirsten told The Age.

"To not have him around - does that alleviate it? Does it make it better? I don't know the answer. But I don't think it takes the gloss off the Test series. One thing we must always be aware of is the game is bigger than the individual."

Kirsten, though, hopes his team can cash in on Symonds' absence should the all-rounder not play.

"To not have those types of individuals means they are going to be replaced by more inexperienced players, so we will hopefully be able to exploit (that)," said Kirsten.

"We all know with the Australian set-up that they always replace those individuals with quality players, but in the heat of Test match battle sometimes experience counts for a lot."