Dilip Vengsarkar, India's chairman of selectors, has said he is pleased with the team's performance in the one-off Twenty20 game against Australia in Mumbai.
"We played excellent cricket against a formidable team like Australia," he told reporters. "The Aussies play cricket at a different level, but we showed on Saturday that we too can be dominant."
Vengsarkar rued the loss in the sixth one-dayer in Nagpur, where India lost their way chasing a huge target after getting off to a solid start, to hand the series to Australia."Had we won in Nagpur we could have very well drawn the series."
He was also impressed with Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captaincy skills and the way he maintained his composure under pressure. "He did a good job during the series. He is a good thinker and a calming effect on the side."
Vengsarkar felt the wins in the last two matches against Australia would lift the team's spirit. "It will stand us in good stead and our morale will be higher when we play Pakistan," he said. "Even when we go to Australia these wins will help because we have beaten them here. At least it will be at the back of our minds that this team [Australia] is beatable."
When asked to compare the current Australian side with the West Indies team which toured India after the 1983 World Cup, he said: "Both are great sides. In 1983 West Indies really clobbered us in the one-dayers and Test matches. But this time we held our own and played extremely well against the Aussies."
The selectors will pick the squad for the ODIs against Pakistan on either October 26 or 27 during the Challenger Trophy, India's premier domestic one-day tournament, in Ahmedabad. The first one-dayer against Pakistan is on November 5 in Guwahati.
