2018-19 BBL: Jason Sangha draws inspiration from Joe Root

Australian cricketer Jason Sangha, who recently became the youngest player to score a half-century in the 2018-19 Big Bash League (BBL), credit England Test skipper and his teammate at Sydney Thunders Joe Root for inspiring him.

The 19-year-old, who stitched a 40-run partnership with Root during their match against Melbourne Stars, said batting with the Englishman was a calming factor for him.

"Joe's been amazing. Joe's taken me under his wing and I've absolutely chewed his brain. I was just soaking it all in really . I was batting with one of my idols Joe Root, so it couldn't really get better really for a BBL debut," Cricket.com.au quoted Sangha, as saying.

"I loved it. Joe was batting with me, he was just very calming, keeping my nerves down. I was just so excited. He was very good, we kept talking about making sure we go deep (into the innings)," he added.

The teenager also revealed that T20 cricket is more of a challenge for him as he comes from a red-ball cricket background. He, however, added that with the kind of teammates he has in Sydney Thunder, his job becomes relatively easy.

"I'm obviously very new to the (T20) game, I'm coming back from a lot of red-ball cricket as well. T20 is a totally different game. With T20 cricket, it's always moving, sometimes it can be hard to stop and think about what you're trying to do," Sangha said.

"I've been playing a lot of white-ball (cricket) in the pathways system (but) I'll say T20 is more of a challenge for me. But when you have a team like this who are really supportive, know exactly what they're trying to do and pass that information onto me, it makes my job really easy," he added.

Sangha played a knock of 63 runs off 36 balls in their match against Melbourne Stars to help his side put a total of 181 runs on the board. His innings included four sixes and four boundaries.

The 19-year-old walked onto the crease when Thunders were in trouble as they had lost three wickets at the end of eight overs with just 59 runs on the scoreboard. His crucial 40-run partnership with teammate Joe Root gave an edge to Thunders in the match.

The game was, however, spoiled by rain. Applying the Duckworth Lewis method, Thunders registered a 15-run victory over Melbourne Stars.