It will be a hard battle: Sehwag

Sehwag blushes and admits he’s never been in such a situation before. While he conveniently ignored Yuvraj’s question and took another, the Delhi batsman is keen to answer his question tomorrow with a big bash.

Excerpts:

• On India’s preparations:

I think we have been practising hard. We had two sessions yesterday. Australia are the world champions, and it was no surprise that they beat Sri Lanka comfortably, but Sri Lanka did well to restrict the Australians to just over 250. Australia are the world champions and can beat anyone anywhere. We have to play 100 overs of hard cricket to beat them. It is difficult to beat them at home, but we will try our best and hopefully will do well this time.

• On India’s dismal record at the MCG:

It’s a big ground and the outfield is slow, which is why maybe India could not do well here. But there were a couple of good individual performances here by myself and Sachin Tendulkar in the past. Hopefully we will do well again tomorrow.

• On countering Brett Lee who has 35 wickets against India this season:

Brett Lee is a good bowler and is living up to expectations. We will try not to give him early wickets, that way the pressure would be on the Australians, which will allow us to raise a good total.

• Why only India are the likely side to beat Australia:

I think India are the only team to have done well in Australia. We won a Test match the last time we toured Australia and now on this tour. They are probably worried and scared that this team could beat them, reason why the Australians say this is a big game for them.