Australia captain Michael Clarke believes his underperforming side are ready to put their poor form behind them after they thrashed Pakistan in the Twenty20 World Cup group game.

The Aussies began their Caribbean campaign with a 34-run win over the defending champions on Sunday making good on their word to improve their reputation in cricket’s newest format.

Almost unstoppable in the Test and ODIs, Clarke’s side has been stumped in Twenty20.

But the super skipper is backing his players to turn around their fortunes, starting against Bangladesh tomorrow, when a win will see them through to the Super Eights.

“There’s extra motivation from within the squad, we want to perform better in Twenty20 cricket then we have in general,” Clarke said. “I think our form has improved over the past 12 months and we’ve started really well.

The key is going to be adapting to conditions and I think we’ve got a really good squad to do that.”

After the Aussie batsmen had set an imposing total of 191 at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia, their fast bowlers worked their way through the Pakistan line-up, taking eight wickets with Shaun Tait leading the way with three for 20. And Clarke praised the adaptability of his pace attack, especially on a pitch that was supposed to favour spin.

“All four fast bowlers in our squad are not only fast bowlers who just run in and bowl at the same pace, and bowl the same ball every ball,” Clarke (who was out for two) added.

“They’ve got great variation, great pace and the key for those guys is their execution, which they did really well.”

Meanwhile, man of the moment Suresh Raina praised the influence of India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni after his top ton against South Africa on Sunday.

“Mahi [Dhoni] helped me a lot in the IPL,” he said. “The senior players, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, have also supported me throughout.”