Relentless aggression, seen during the Twenty20 World Cup last month, will be the Indian team's mantra in the T20 International against Australia in Mumbai on Saturday, declared middle order batsman Robin Uthappa.
"All our young batsmen have been aggressive since our Under-19 days. The younger guys play cricket aggressively. We all believe in being very positive," said Uthappa ahead of the one-off T20 International, the maiden one on India soil, under lights at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
"Our confidence is pretty high after victory in the Twenty20 World Cup. A 20-over game can change in a matter of five balls," said the Bangalore youngster whose batting in the just-concluded ODI series has been praised by Australian captain Ricky Ponting and former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar.
"Obviously as compared to the fifty over game we need to play more lofted shots in Twenty 20 matches," said Uthappa.
"The key is to go out there and enjoy playing without fear of committing mistakes," he added.
"I am prepared to bat in any position that the team management wants me to," Uthappa said, referring to Gavaskar's suggestion that he should be promoted up in the batting order.
He sounded pretty happy to be praised by World Cup-winning captain Ponting after saying at the beginning of the ODI series that the Indian team would meet "fire with fire".
Reminded about his aggressive statement uttered in Bangalore before the start of the best-of-seven series, Uthappa said it was the Australian captain who started the war of words and not him.
"He started it and not I. We have enjoyed playing against them. On the field we fight hard but off it we are fine."
"His (Ponting's) words about my batting are very inspiring, especially coming from a World Cup-winning captain. But I need to iron out my game and make sure that I convert the starts I get into bigger scores," he added.
Uthappa also did not bite the bait to queries put forth about the hostile reception promised when the Indian team travels Down Under later in the year.
"That series is a long way off. We have the series against Pakistan for the next one-and-a-half months."
He admitted that some of the players who have been part of the Indian team continuously from the tour of Ireland and England are pretty tired.
"Playing cricket for the last two-and-a-half months without a break has been pretty hard, but we have a break of 8-10 days before the Pakistan series," he said.
Uthappa condemned racism in any form in the game and pleaded with spectators to behave themselves, but at the same time gave a high score of 6.5 out of 10 for the Indian crowd's good behaviour.
"People should not be racist and abide by the messages put up (by the authorities). They should follow the rules, I will give them (Indian spectators) eight-and-a-half out of ten (for good behaviour)," he stated.
Uthappa got a little flustered at the suggestion that the World T20 Cup triumph was a bit of a fluke.
"It was not due to luck. We had covered all the areas of the game well - batting, bowling, fielding," the youngster said.
Asked what he thought about Ponting's statement earlier in the day that more than the seven-match series every one had been waiting for the T20 tie, Uthappa said that could be the visiting team's perception after having lost to India in the semi-final of the tournament at Durban.
"Australia have been looking forward to this more than us. They want to beat us," he said.
Ponting said in the morning that his team was not viewing the game as a means "to get even" at the hosts for the loss in South Africa which knocked them out of title contention.
