Mike Hussey says South Africa's internal dramas could help unite the side going into battle against Australia in the dead-rubber third test starting here today.
Ricky Ponting's Australians have rebounded from their 2-1 defeat at home against the Proteas in December and January to claim a 2-0 lead in the three-match series in South Africa.
The South Africans have been in crisis in the past week and skipper Graeme Smith will miss the Cape Town test through injury, meaning Ashwell Prince was recalled as skipper but a day later he was stripped of the captaincy and told to focus on his new role as opener.
Jacques Kallis, who has led the side once before, in 2006, and quit the vice-captaincy a year later, has been named captain in a "one-off" capacity.
Middle-order batsman Prince is believed to have told selectors to give the captaincy to someone else after he was refused the right to have a say in the composition of the batting order.
"I think back to when we played against India in Australia [in January 2008]," Hussey said yesterday in Cape Town.
"In Sydney there were similar sort of talk. We were two-nil up in the series, there was a lot of controversy going around and it sort of pulled their team together a bit tighter."
India won the third test in Perth.
"From my point of view, and our team's point of view, I don't think we really try to focus on them too much.
"We'll do our strong preparation on their new players coming in and make sure we have good plans against them. But I think we're still developing our team and our team culture.
"We've got to keep worrying about what we're doing. We can't really afford to take our eye off us and focus too much on their camp."
•South Africa is expected to play uncapped all-rounder Albie Morkel in place of his brother Morne in the third test.
South Africa's selectors have lost patience with Morne, a tall paceman capable of making life tough for Australia's batsmen with his alarming bounce.
The right-armer has been prone to bowling too wide and too short at times and his lack of consistency was a key factor in the home team's defeats in their opening two tests against Australia.
Albie (27), a medium-pacer, has played 35 one-day internationals and was player of the series in South Africa's 4-1 ODI triumph in Australia in January.
He hit 105 runs at an average of 52.50 but his three wickets cost 74.33 runs each.
Young paceman Wayne Parnell is the likely 12th man for South Africa.
