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'Being excluded from a Test match hurts the most'

Australia's fast bowling sensation James Pattinson revealed that the four players, including him, were banned from the third Test not only for not handing presentations to coach Mickey Arthur but for various other reasons.

- I deserve this punishment: Pattinson

- This is the straw that broke the camel's back: Clarke

- Sacking will not impact my friendship with players: Clarke

"It's been an ongoing thing, these are not massive things. A lot of people are saying it's not for handing something in (presentations). It's more than that, like being late for something sometimes. You can give fines for that, or something, but that's only so much.

"You talk about being late, the worst thing is being excluded from something, being excluded from the team, being excluded from playing a Test match and that hurts the most," he said in Mohali on Tuesday.

Pattinson along with Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja were dropped for failing to make a presentation on how to improve their personal as well as the team's performance after the innings and 135 runs defeat in the second Test in Hyderabad.

'A kick in the backside is what everyone needs'

Pattinson was left out despite being Australia's best bowler in the series with a tally of eight wickets in the first two games. The visitors trail 0-2 in the four-match series but the team management went ahead with their decision of punishing the guilty players despite the decision weakening their team composition.

"A kick in the backside is I think [what] everyone needs. We have got a group of young players who haven't really found their feet in Test cricket, myself included. There are a lot of inexperienced players. If we get everyone going in the right direction, all wanting to do the same thing that starts firstly off the field as well getting everything right in shape there, doing everything possibly for the team to achieve success on the field.

"I think this is a small step, it might be harsh but in reality it is the right step towards achieving really good things over the next year as a team," he added.

'We can use the punishment as a warning sign against complacency'

Pattinson said that he choose not to make any excuses and accepted the punishment with a promise of learning from it and improving in the future.

"I am glad it happened in my career at such a young age because I can learn from that. If I was 30 and making the same mistake I would be questioning myself, I am younger now; I can really learn from this and take it in my stride. Like I said before, if everyone in the team can do the same, not just me but everyone else, then we can learn from it and use it as a warning sign against complacency. We are not getting results because there is complacency and there is mediocre stuff so I think as long as we can address this from here we can push forward from here," he said.

Despite being ruled out of the Test, Pattinson, Khawaja and Johnson were seen working hard in the nets and helped their other colleagues prepare for the match. The fact that Australia chose to address the issue front-on helped sort out the problem and the players now understand what is expected of them, said Pattinson.

'Clarke got everyone going in the right direction'

"Everyone in the team really gelled together. As a team we have done really well, addressed the matter front on, straightaway talked about it as a team and put it behind us. In saying that we are reflecting on how it happened and how we can get better. That is the one thing we are all about as to how we can get better.

"As a team we are out to achieve success and getting back to No. 1 in the world. As people know talent can only get you so far and it is the other things off the field that you can gel together and form a great culture within the team," he claimed.

The fast bowler also claimed that he had nothing against Michael Clarke following the punishment and termed his leadership as "fantastic".

"We've got great respect for Michael. I think he has led very well. He has been very selfless, he puts the team first before himself, and I think the direction we're headed in, it's because of the way he wants the things to go. On the field, his leadership has been fantastic. His personal performance has been amazing over the last year. He's led from the front. It's testing times over here because these are such harsh conditions and it's his first time as captain over here. But I think he's done a fantastic job and he's got everyone going in the right direction," he said.

'Indian batsmen have kept it very simple in the start of their innings'

Pattinson said the major difference between the two teams has been the batting. For Australia, Clarke is the only batsman to score a century, while India already have four centuries out of which two are double centuries scored by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Cheteshwar Pujara.

"One of the main things is the way India have played with the batting. They've kept it very simple in the start of their innings. From a bowling point of view it's been very hard to penetrate, getting a wicket early in an innings because they've looked pretty sharp straightaway. They could be 10 off 70 balls in the first session -- like Pujara and Vijay did in Hyderabad. They scored 50 runs in the session but it held them in great shape going into the rest of the day in the second and third sessions.

"Their bowlers as well mainly the spinners have bowled really in good areas, attacked the stumps really well, really made us hard for us to score. We as a batting order like to score, like to keep the game moving forward. That's one thing I think they have summed up. We try to score too much, and I think they have done really well with the batting. We've done a lot of talking about that. The series is not over yet. We have got two Tests and if we win them we return the trophy. Hopefully, we can push on and get better success," he said.