There was intensity, adrenaline, eagerness and a new found enthusiasm in this Indian T20 unit. India’s practice session on the eve of the first T20I against Australia in Adelaide saw the bowlers bowling full tilt and the batsmen having a long and hard session at the nets. Among the ones who grabbed the most attention were the new entrants in the side - Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra and young Hardik Pandya. Raina and Yuvraj were the first ones to hit the nets and begin their drills as they watchfully played the first ten minutes of their batting session. Then began the flurry of big shots; some were timed with precision while the rest were dispatched with disdain. Raina looked in a good rhythm and the excitement to hit the ground running was there to be seen. “I have played an entire domestic T20 tournament back home and have a lot of match practice under my belt,” Raina said after his practice session. “I am feeling good about myself, especially after winning the Syed Mushtaq Ali competition. It was a good stint at the nets. I got good inputs from Sanjay Bangar and the rest of the boys bowled really well at us. It was an intensive net session. I am prepared for the challenge and would love to score well here. I am looking forward to the series eagerly.” The white ball marauder though, was quick to point out that personal form held less relevance and it was the team morale that would hold prime importance come the first T20I. Raina gave an elaborated insight into mental preparedness required to fare well in the shortest format of the game. “More than personal form it is the team morale that matters more in T20 cricket. You have to look to play innovative strokes, think differently and be very fresh in your mind. That will happen with more training and more matches. “It is a quick format and you don’t have the time to switch to plan B. You have to enjoy batting, bowling and fielding for the entire forty overs of the game. There will be run-out and catches opportunities, situations where hitting a six or saving a six on a particular ball will be the need of the hour. I believe T20 is all about enjoying your cricket; only then you can give it your best. We will look to enjoy every moment of this series. We have to believe that we will win these three matches.” Raina further stressed on the importance of running between the wickets and fielding well especially at venues where the grounds are big. “These are big grounds and I feel we have to try and build pressure by bowling a lot of dot balls. Fielding will be the key here. We have to run really hard in these grounds. The singles and doubles will hold importance. As you saw in the final ODI, MS Dhoni and Manish Pandey ran really well between the wickets which is why the team got over the line. You will have to wait till the end before handing over that finishing blow. It will be important to start well in the first six overs.” There is much firepower in this T20 line-up. Some big and hard-hitting batsmen have joined the line-up and one such batsman is Yuvraj Singh. All eyes were on him at the nets with the selectors, coaches and team director Ravi Shastri keeping a close watch on his game. Yuvraj is making a comeback of sorts and Raina believed the team was more than happy to have him back in the side. “Yuvraj Singh has been in good form of late. Everyone wants to see a player like Yuvraj to perform and do well for the team. I have always been a fan of Yuvraj and whenever he has been in the dressing room, I have always learnt a lot from him. He is looking in good touch and we even fielded together in our drills today. It will be good fun if we can play together in the games.” Not just Yuvraj, there are other veterans who have joined the T20 bandwagon. Raina believed the T20 squad had a good mix of youth and experience. “If you see, the bulk of the 2011 World Cup winning team is present in the current T20 side. There is MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, R Ashwin, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Virat Kohli and myself. There is a perfect combination of youth and experience in the side. We as a unit have travelled together and this dressing room is bubbling with experience and confidence at the moment.” As a batting unit, you couldn’t ask for anything more agreed Raina. “We have a strong middle-order and an explosive opening pair. If you look at the ODI series, we were scoring close to 300 in every game and while chasing as well we batted well. The results didn’t go our way but we played very positive cricket. No team has batted as well as we have in this tour which shows the level at which our team graph has improved as a batting unit. As a batting unit we do believe that we can play in any situation. When it comes to T20 cricket I would say we will have to plan well before going to the T20 world cup. We have to win these three matches so that a tone has been set for the team going forward.” For Raina and company it was a brand new start to a brand new series. Just a week of cricket left in the Australian summer for India and the team was looking to end it on a high. “It will be important for us to start the series well. We intend to play fearless cricket. The ODI series is the past now and this is a fresh beginning. We have to look to be dominating and be positive in our approach. We will do well. Australia is an entertaining place to play cricket and we are looking forward to it. Australia have a young side and they would know that the win in the last game has given us good momentum going into the T20Is. They will come hard at us but we are ready too.”