'Young team with lot of aggression' - Yuvraj

Yuvraj Singh, one of the chief architects of recent Indian victories in the one-day and the Twenty20 formats, believes that the team needs to put Friday's embarrassing Twenty20 loss behind them if they are to perform well during the CB Series. "We need to focus on the first game. Our batsmen need to start well and get used to the wicket," he said on the eve of the first game against Australia at the Gabba on Sunday.

Yuvraj, who had a forgettable outing during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with only 17 runs in the first two Tests he played, had to suffer more agony when he injured his left knee during a football session in the middle of the third Test at the WACA last month. Though his knee was still in a brace, Yuvraj said he felt "very confident about being fit in a couple of days". That would be good news for India who desperately need his services, especially after the debacle on Friday.

Speaking about the newcomers into the ODI squad and the pressure they might face going straight into a big series, Yuvraj said the lack of acclimatisation wouldn't be a problem because most of them had played in big series in the last year.

"The important thing to keep in mind is how fast they can mentally prepare then they'll be in a position to give a good performance", Yuvraj said speaking from his own experiences when he came into the Indian team. He said Australia was a tough place and the Aussies don't make it easy either and the boys realise that. "They'll grow through this tough experience. We are a hard working young team with a lot aggression."

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India's one-day and Twenty20 skipper, spoke about how his batsmen had failed to live up to the expectations the previous evening at the MCG. But Dhoni would have sorely missed Yuvraj, who is also his deputy, and more importantly the second highest run-getter for India in ODIs in 2007.Two of the top five, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, are not even part of the ODI squad, something that Ricky Ponting picked on when he said he was "surprised that he [Ganguly] is not there in the side after the way he played against us at home".

Yuvraj didn't deny the absence of players like Ganguly and Dravid was a huge loss but stressed it was better to look to the future instead. "This is the best one-day outfit. And if you look at most of the team, it is the same that won the Twenty20 World Cup."

Yuvraj agreed with Ponting's view that Sri Lanka, the World Cup runners-up, could not be ignored. "It's not only about Australia. We need to also keep in mind Sri Lanka." And the best way to beat this pair of quality sides was, according to Yuvraj, " to play consistently in all three departments of the game".

Meanwhile Munaf Patel and Manoj Tiwary joined the Indian squad on Saturday. Patel was the last-minute replacement for RP Singh who had to go back home after suffering a hamstring injury while Tiwary has been called as a cover for Yuvraj.