MELBOURNE, January 30: It's been a tour of nerves and a few moments of truth for Mahendra Singh Dhoni so far. He has improved his work behind the stumps that is sure but the trouble in Twenty20 and One-day captain has not been so successful with the bat. Arriving with his young and dynamic world champion T20 team in Melbourne, the 26-year-old Ranchi man wasted no time in spelling out his plans for the Twenty20 game against Australia on Friday, and the triangular series (also involving Sri Lanka) thereafter.

In an exclusive interview to TOI , Dhoni delivered a terafic warning to the Aussies. "They have played with my patience," he said while explaining his uncharacteristically defensive play during the four-Test series. He also stressed that things may soon change as he would be back to his natural self as a batsman. Excerpts from the interview:

Now that the Tests are over, is it time for the team to return to its attacking best in T20 and ODIs?
As we all know, One-dayers are a different ball game. The conditions will be very different and our team is also very different. We have a new set of bowlers who haven't yet got a feel of the conditions here. Even RP (Singh) is going back. It would be important to see how the youngsters react to this challenge. For me, it's about setting new bench marks, about showing the same aggression. We will try and follow what we did during the series against Australia back home and also in the T20 World Cup.

Is Yuvraj's fitness a major worry?
He is trying to recover and we all and the support staff are helping him get there as soon as possible. Hopefully he should be fine for the second One-day match.

You also have Tendulkar this time, making his T20 debut under you?
That would be interesting but let's see how it goes. We are playing on the day after and we have two practice sessions before that. It is also important that the new players get into the groove for the series ahead. it will create an exzorbing cricket rest of the series.

Sree Santh has returned and so have the youngsters. Given the fresh legs don't you think India have an edge?
Overall, if you see we have youngsters and definitely you expect a lot from them. At times they can come up with things that can surprise you and we are banking on that. And we also have a fair bit of experience, so we are not a totally inexperienced side. We are looking at (playing) some good cricket in the next one month.

There's Ishant Sharma too...
Surely. But we have to be careful with our fast bowlers. Eight months back we thought we had ample fast bowlers but just six months down the line we were struggling on that count. We need to look at the number of matches each pacer plays. It's important we keep rotating them given the number of Tests we are playing. he is definately a future of indian team reason is he is improving day by day and also carry on his pace continusely.

Given the Harbhajan Singh controversy, you think the Aussies will come hard at him?
The Aussies always play their game the hard way but I don't think they will be coming hard at Bhajji. Also the controversy is well and truly over now and I'm so glad about it. To me the issue from the start was more an off-the-field thing and it needed to be sorted out.

You think Robin Uthappa would still be able to walk and whack the Aussie bowlers?
It's tough to walk and hit here but if he thinks he can still continue doing it then good. It's his strength and we will not stop him from doing that.

India has defeated Australia twice in Twenty20, first in the World Cup and later in Mumbai. Don't you think a win at the MCG would be the perfect start for the series?
I hope that happens. Then again it's all about how you play and how you give a start to the series. We would surely want to do that but it doesn't mean that it will be a cakewalk. Let's see how things go. I am not a person who predicts too much. I just go by the day's play. We shall see.