Mahendra Singh Dhoni does have a way with words. Refusing to be drawn into psychological warfare that the Australians have initiated, the Indian captain said enough to tick off the visitors on match-eve press conference here at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Friday.

Australia’s non-playing captain Ricky Ponting, during his media address On Thursday, termed India’s Twenty20 title triumph as a thing of the past. Asked about his reaction on Ponting’s comments, Dhoni said he doesn’t want to talk too much about what the Aussies have said and that he would rather prefer to perform in the middle.

“You know the Australians. When we go there (Australia) they talk and when they come here they do the same thing. If you go by Ponting’s statement, whatever he has said is past, whatever I am saying will be history. At the end of the day what eventually matters is the performance when you get down there in the middle. I am here to play good aggressive cricket and not to talk,” pointed out the wicketkeeper-batsman.

The Jharkhand player, however, admitted that Indians had a difficult task of switching on to the 50-over format from the T20 version. “It’s (T20) very different from the 50-over format. It’s fast and you have to make quick decisions over there. Most of the bowlers had to bowl two or three overs. But in 50 overs play, you have to bowl longer spells, you will face more situations where you have to plan accordingly... So in that sense we have a difficult challenge to adapt to one-dayers,” he explained.

While Dhoni had a largely young side in South Africa, the 26-year-old will have three former captains -- Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid -- in his ranks on Saturday.

While nothing startling was exepected, Dhoni did say that individuals are not important, it’s the team that matters the most. “Whatever suits the team best will be done. It’s not about juniors or seniors in the side, it’s about what is good for the team.

We are looking at players who can come up with a package as in fielding and bowling or batting depending upon your specialisation,” he noted. Dhoni also admitted that it will only help him to have such experienced players in his team. “If you looks at their (the big three) experience, all of them have played over 300 one-dayers, which is amazing. If there’s a tough situation in the game, I can always turn to them for their advice,” he said.

With Ponting, Mike Hussey and Shane Watson having injured Australia are wearing somewhat a depleted look, but Dhoni said it will not make any difference to Aussies.

Meanwhile, there were minor injury scares to Harbhajan Singh and Dinesh Kaarthick. While Harbhajan had a stiff neck, Kaarthick suffered an injury to the left cheek during a fielding session.