(BBC) India face holders Australia in the Champions Trophy at Centurion today needing a victory to retain realistic hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
Captain Mahendra Dhoni admitted every game is a knockout after they lost their opener by 54 runs to Pakistan.
“If we don’t play well, we can pack up and go back home,” he said.
Australia beat the group outsiders West Indies by 50 runs but skipper Ricky Ponting said: “We know we need to play better when we take on India.”
Dhoni admitted the absence of Yuvraj Singh, who like star opener Virender Sehwag has been ruled out of the tournament because of injury, was difficult to cover, with ball as well as bat.
“Yuvraj bowls six or seven useful overs and I missed that option,” he said. “It’s all about adapting to conditions. We should have adapted to the conditions. We could have done a lot better.
“Frankly speaking, I thought I was short of three bowlers. I didn’t know who to turn to.”
The Indian bowling will be put to the test once again by a strong Australian batting line-up, which demonstrated its depth against West Indies as fast bowler Mitchell Johnson smashed an unbeaten 73 from 47 balls.
“It was particularly hard work early on,” Ponting admitted. “It was a difficult wicket, so to get that sort of total was good going. “The batsmen did a pretty good job and Johnson finished things off pretty well for us and those runs proved vital in the game.”
Australia (from): Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Callum Ferguson, Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Hopes, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Tim Paine, Peter Siddle, Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Cameron White.
India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Rudra Pratap Singh, Amit Mishra, Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar, Virat Kohli.
Umpires: Tony Hill (NZL) and Billy Bowden (NZL)
TV umpire: Asad Rauf (PAK)
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)
