CalcuttaMelbourne: Suresh Raina is eager to do what Yuvraj Singh, the hero of India's 2011 World Cup triumph, did.

Against Pakistan in India's campaign opener on Sunday in Adelaide, the left-hander came out to bat at crucial No. 4 position, and smashed 74 off just 56 deliveries to help India register a comfortable 76 runs win.

Boosted by that performance, the 28-year-old Raina gave credit to 2011 World Cup Player of the Tournament Yuvraj and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his success.

"You need to follow your instincts which I have learnt from Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. I have always batted lower down the order. In the last World Cup, when I didn't play bulk of the matches, I observed Yuvi and saw how he used to finish games for the side," he said.

Speaking to bcci.tv, Raina said: "I want to play Yuvraj Singh's role in this World Cup. I want to field, bowl and bat well."

He added: "I want to dominate when required and at the same time play sensible cricket by rotating the strike and complement the partner at the other end.

"I love to play straight and have an array of scoring options. There will be phases when you are not scoring against particular bowlers and you need to play sensibly at that time," he added, referring to his knock against Pakistan.

Raina said after a rather insipid show in Australia prior to the World Cup, the win against Pakistan came as a much-needed fillip for India.

"Games against Pakistan are always pressure games. It is a different feeling to play against them. This is my second World Cup, and the second World Cup game against Pakistan. We won it in 2011 and now I have played against them in 2015 and won again," he said.

"I hope we maintain this record against them. We have got the start that we were looking for in this tournament. I hope we do well in the coming matches," Raina said.

"We have not had the best of times in Australia over the last three months, but we showed a lot of intensity in the warm-up games. We had a very good meeting with Dhoni, where he spoke to each player and told them about their roles and responsibilities."

He added: "It was a masterstroke by the captain to reach out to each player and make them understand their roles. It was followed by the rest of the management, giving us pointers about the game and it was a good touch added to our daily regime."

Admitting that he was a little nervous before going out to bat against Pakistan, Raina said running between the wickets might just play a crucial role in the big Australian grounds.

"I have to accept I was nervous in the morning of the match. But before walking out to bat, I had in the back of the mind that I had scored an unbeaten 36 in the last World Cup game against Pakistan in Mohali. I was confident about my game since I had played Wahab Riaz, Mohammed Irfan and Shahid Afridi before in India," he said.

"Running between the wickets is going to be crucial since the grounds are bigger here. You need to work the spinners into the gaps and look for scoring at a good rate. Also, it really helps having a good runner at the end. We weren't getting the boundaries frequently, but because of the strike rotation, we managed to get 5 to 6 runs every over."