The pressure tactics adopted by Australian captain Steve Waugh hardly seemed to ruffle Indian vice-captain Rahul Dravid who refused to believe that the heat would be on India alone in the crucial Melbourne Test beginning on Friday.
"The rival captain is always going to say the other team is under pressure when the fact is that everyone is under pressure," Dravid said on Thursday.
"I cannot understand why only we will be under pressure. Australia is also under tremendous pressure," he said referring to the fact that the hosts were faced with the prospect of a rare series loss at home.
"We came here as underdogs. But now we are playing well and we want to carry on," he said.
While admitting that India has had difficulty in capitalising on a one-nil lead in the past, he said it did not mean that it would be the case this time as well.
"Just because we have not been able to finish off the job in the past, it does not mean that we are not going to finish the job off in the future. But we know that it is going to be a lot of hard work from here on.
"Every game in Test cricket is a bit of pressure, and I always get to hear this whether you are one up or one down...," said Dravid.
The in-form middle order batsman said the team got a feel of the track at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when it played in the tour-opener against Victoria last month and was "aware of the bounce".
"It is not that we are playing for the first time in Melbourne. We are aware of the bounce. We have learnt a few lessons (playing against Victoria). We want to implement the things we have discussed at length.
"We know we have to give our best, if we can manage to do that, result would take care of itself," he said.
