India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday sounded a warning to his rivals saying his team has learnt from past mistakes and are ready to conquer the Asia Cup tournament, starting in Pakistan later this week.

- Summer of 1983

"If we play to our potential and our capabilities on an average day we will win more matches than we will lose. I agree with Murali's comments," Dhoni said in Mumbai on Sunday before the team's departure to Karachi.

Muttiah Muralitharan had recently tipped India as the favourites at the Asia Cup.

India coach Gary Kirsten echoed Dhoni's views and said the Asia Cup was one of their immediate goals.

"We have set ourselves some goals for the next few months. We have set some very high standards and the Asia Cup is very much a part of that. Our goal is to win the tournament," Kirsten said.

Dhoni revealed that he would battting a higher in the order to pep lend experience to the middle order, which crumbed during the final of the tri-series against Pakistan in Bangladesh.

"I will stick it to an over mark, but definitely you will see me batting up in the Asia Cup," he said.

The dashing wicketkeeper also refused to dwell too much on India's recent record in Pakistan, saying "past doesn't matter."

"We have played well in Pakistan if you see the past 3-4 tours but that is the past and what you have done in the past does not matter. You have start fresh from the scratch because conditions are different, scenarios are different, so you have to start fresh."

He said that the team is looking to boost the confidence of new comers like Yusuf Pathan by giving them proper exposure. Dhoni rebuffed criticism that Yusuf's was under bowled during the tri-series in Bangladesh, saying that the bowlers were used according to the conditions.

"You use bowlers, whom you think will be more appropriate for the conditions.

"Virender Sehwag was purchasing more turn compared to any other bowler in that sort of wicket.

"It all depends on the strength of different bowlers and the same time you want to give them exposure in a proper way and give them confidence.

"Even if Yusuf bowled just four overs in the tournament we all know he has bowled well in domestic cricket and done well. Definitely we will give him more opportunities and we have confidence not only in his bowling, but his batting as well. So we will back him."

Dhoni said the loss in the final of the tri-series against Pakistan will not affect the team when they face the arch-rivals during the Asia Cup.

"Well it has nothing do to with one game. If you look at the final we had a brilliant game against Pakistan in the league stage. So a win or a loss goes on in cricket and as I said if we play to our potential we will win. It is not about which side you are playing [against] and what has happened in the past.

"If you playing to your potential and performing to your best, then you have more chances to win the game and that is what we will look to do," said the India captain.

Dhoni added that the team is working on utilising the middle overs to the maximum.

"The middle overs are important especially in the 50-overs game. There comes a span in the middle overs when you not only have to ensure that you do not lose wickets but also score at around 5 or 5.50 per over.

"If you have wickets in hand, then after the 38th or 40th over you can around around 70 to 80 runs or nowadays if you have seen you can see 100 runs being scores in the last 10 overs. The middle overs periods are extremely important."