India will bounce back: Yuvraj

The drubbing in the Twenty20 against Australia notwithstanding, this is the best Indian one-day outfit and the young guns would fightback in the tri-series, vice-captain Yuvraj Singh asserted.

"The boys obviously have not got used to the wicket and conditions. It's a pressure situation but then you have to be mentally prepared. This is the best one-day team, these boys won the Twenty20 World Cup and they are again going to click," Yuvraj said ahead of tomorrow's tri-series opener against the hosts here.

"Frankly, it wasn't great deliveries which got our batsmen out. They played too many shots but I am sure they would learn from those mistakes and bounce back," said the middle order batsman, who is recovering from a knee injury and is doubtful tomorrow.

The dashing batsman admitted that the boys would miss seniors like Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid but felt that time has come for India to plan for the future.

"Sourav and Rahul are top players and they would be missed. But you have to look at the future." Yuvraj was also emphatic that his side wouldn't stop from being aggressive, even though it wouldn't be of physical or verbal kind.

"We believe in aggression but it's got to be a controlled one. Aggression doesn't mean that you start abusing opponents, begin staring at each other. It's all about body language and staying positive at all times," he said.

The Punjab left-hander pleaded for the young batsmen of the side and wanted fans and media to be patient with the team.

"I can tell from my personal experience that it's not possible to expect youngsters to perform consistently. They wouldn't be making big hundreds at number six. They will learn slowly and must be given time," Yuvraj said.

Dwelling on his poor form in the tour, Yuvraj put it down to having not spent enough time in the middle while sounding optimistic that he would be firing in the one-dayers.

"The practice game was rained off; I failed in two Tests and didn't spend enough time in the middle. It's been a failure in just two games and everyone is sounding as if I have had 10 or 15 bad games.

"There are no excuses, I didn't bat well but I can always have a good game and come back," he said.
Yuvraj warned his boys not to take Sri Lanka lightly.

"Australia is a very balanced side. If we have to do well, we have to also not miss the fact that Sri Lanka, the other team, is a World Cup finalist.

"They (Australia and Sri Lanka) are top teams and in order to beat them, we have to be consistently good in all three departments."

He said he was optimistic of playing in the second game of the tri-series. "I have to push myself and start playing as early as possible. I am confident of playing in couple of days," he said.

News Source : Samachar