Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni looking confidant on Monday. India lost five successive test on the foreign soil and skipper believe bounce back in the second test starting form Tuesday in Sydney. England whitewash India by 4-0 and now Team India also lost the first test match against Australia.
"It does affect it (team confidence) a bit, but it's not something to get bogged down about because we all know as to what exactly happened and you learn a lot from the mistakes that you make so we are looking at the positives. In the last five Test matches abroad that we have lost we have still had plenty of positives," said by MS DHONI ahead of the match here.
"We need to improve as a unit, rather than just improving as a bowling or batting side. Unlike in England, we have not faced a lot of injuries here so it's a positive. The Australian team will have to keep the pressure on the batting line-up and the bowlers also at the same time," added by him.
"It's a big distraction for the media which is good for us. Wherever we go, people talk about it. As a team, we would like him to score it as quickly as possible. There is no other reason apart from the fact that it's a big milestone and we would love to enjoy and be part of his success," said by him.
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We all know it will happen. It may happen in this Test match, it may happen in the next Test match or in this series. You can't really stop it from happening. I don't think he personally thinks about it a lot.
"Of course, the quicker he achieves it, you know, it will ease of whatever so-called pressure is on him, because there's pressure of failure and there's pressure of performance. What he's going through is maybe a pressure of performance, but he doesn't really talk about it and it never feels as if he's under any sort of pressure when it comes to scoring the 100th hundred," Dhoni said.
Dhoni wanted to have a last-minute look at the wicket before deciding if he wanted to bat or bowl, provided he wins the toss.
"It depends exactly on how the wicket looks before the start of the game. If there's moisture on the wicket and if it's cloudy, then it may stay for a bit more than the first session. Then we can look to bowl first but we'll see the wicket in the morning before making a decision.
"There's a hint of green grass on the wicket. Initially there may be something for the fast bowlers. After that it will get better to bat on. Later, I'm not sure, it may turn or not depending on how much they have rolled the wicket."
"Even in the first Test we had a plan so it's not like we have made a plan after the first Test. We have definitely got plans and we'll try to execute them as well as possible."
"We are happy with Dravid. He is among the best catchers that we have got. In cricket you drop some you catch some. But if you are consistent, there is no good reason why you should be out of the slips."
"But it's always good to leave deliveries as an opener, that's something we're definitely working on. But again, you don't want a Sehwag to leave too many balls because he's someone who relishes the cut shot," he said.
"Opening is very crucial to us. We would love to see them scoring big runs but no added pressure because we know at the top level, at times, you might be in good form or you may not be in good form. You just need that one delivery to get you out. In the same way, you can get the form in 5-10 deliveries.
"We can certainly make them (the Australian bowlers) work harder because I feel if we can force them to bowl into our areas, then that can really help us score runs. It's something we need to work on. We should force the bowlers to bowl into our areas."
