Our intensity has dropped: Uthappa

[Guest Hiten.]

Chandigarh: Batsman Robin Uthappa has attributed India's lacklustre showing in the ongoing Future Cup Series to a drop in the intensity levels in the team. "The intensity levels have dropped after we have come back from winning the Twenty20 World Cup and a long tour of England that preceded it," Uthappa said while addressing the media on Sunday here at the Sector-16 stadium after the Indian team's practice session in the morning. Uthappa, however, said that India are ready to avenge their two defeats after the first One-Dayer in Bangalore was abandoned due to rain. "We have had two tough games in the series. We have been resting well because the boys were fatigued after coming back from South Africa. But we are looking forward to the game tomorrow in a positive manner," the Bangalore batsman added. India's opening batsman Gautam Gambhir earlier had suffered a groin strain after slipping while batting in the nets and limped off and he has been sent for an MRI and his position will be assessed tomorrow. "Gambhir strained his groin in the nets. He has been sent for an MRI scan and we can only determine his position once the reports come out." Uthappa also said Sourav Ganguly was fit after his hamstring niggle kept him out of the Kochi and Hyderabad ODIs. "Sourav is fit now and ready to take his place back in the side." When asked if the Australians were more skilled when compared man to man, Uthappa denied and said that it in fact is the other way round. "They have adapted well here in the series. But I think we are better skill-wise. We have the edge over them on paper. "Everyone is trying their best, but the rub of the green hasn't been on our side. It does not go in your favour all the time, but we have our plans in place," he said. Uthappa also angrily reacted to speculations over factions in the team of a growing divide between junior and senior players. "There is no junior or senior talk. It's only media that is assuming things. In fact, the environment in the dressing room is very cordial, everybody is enjoying his time with each other. We are a well-knit unit."Speaking on the pitch at the Sector-16 Stadium here, Uthappa said the wicket had a lot of runs in it and Monday's game would be a high-scoring one. "It will be a big scoring game. There is a lot of runs in the wicket here. You will see both sides scoring runs. It won't change much during the course of the day," said the batsman. Uthappa said the lack of performances from batsmen up front had a lot to do with the T20 mould they were in. "We were playing in the T20 World Cup mould for sometime (against Australia). It takes sometime to change for a different version of the game." The batsman also said that though there was a conscious effort on the part of both sides to curb the verbal jousting on the ground, India won't hold back if the Australians try to unsettle them. "We are focusing on the game tomorrow, but if they start it, we will surely give it back to them." The Indian bowlers have not been able to restrict prolific batsman Matthew Hayden throughout this series, who has gone on to get the Australians off to good starts. "(Bowling coach) Venkatesh Prasad has been working hard with the bowlers. They have a strong strategy in place. Definitely, they have come up with something to control the likes of Hayden," Uthappa. When asked about India faltering right at the start of their batting in all the three matches, Uthappa said it wasn't that Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson were exceptional. "We have got runs off both of them. But we haven't had the wickets in hand to finish off games. We have too many wickets too early." Uthappa concluded by saying that the batsmen will have to put their hands up and make for a good performance. "We won't be under pressure tomorrow. More than pressure, the batsmen will have to take more responsibility." ========== Can we conclude from this interview that Ausi's got better of us ALREADY ? We still have to play 4 ODIS in India then 4 Tests + ~21 ODI's in AUS .... damn we better get Mentally tough to tackle these bloody convicts

[siddhu]

aah the fruity whining continues...