Indian speedster Jasprit Bumrah has insisted that he is excited to play alongside 'helpful' Ashish Nehra in the upcoming three-match T20 series against Australia beginning Sunday.
After playing in the three-match T20I series against England, where he tasted moderate success, 38-year-old Nehra could only feature in six games for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) before being ruled out with a hamstring problem.
Speaking on the eve of the first T20, Bumrah heaped praise on Nehra, saying the veteran pacer has loads of experience and always ready to help the youngsters.
"He (Nehra) is a very experienced player. I've played some cricket with him. I've played in World T20 with him. It's really good to have him in the side... It's lot of fun. He has loads of experience to share. He's very helpful for youngsters like me," said Bumrah.
India have a 9-3 head to head record against the reigning ODI champions, but the 23-year-old that it is the last thing on team's mind.
"We don't think like that. We only focus on the game. Every format requires a little bit of skill level. We want to focus on that and if we do our basics right, everything else is taken care of."
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Having comprehensively defeated Australia in the five-match ODI series, India would be riding high on confidence and would aim to rub salts on the wounds of the Steve Smith-led side.
India defeated Australia by six wickets the last time both the teams met in World T20 in March 2016, and prior to that they completed a 3-0 clean sweep Down Under in January.
"When you are playing for India, you don't need any kind of (extra) drive because you are very happy. Any format, you love representing your country. Whenever you are playing for India, you have a responsibility, you have to live up to it," said Bumrah, the second ranked bowler in T20s.
Being a death bowler specialist, Bumrah said his role hardly changes in the ODI and T20 format.
"One-day cricket and T20 cricket are slightly different, but in the situations where I bowl, it's similar because of the death overs," he added.
Australia T20 squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa.
India T20 squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Axar Patel.
T20 Fixtures
October 7: JSCA International Stadium, Ranchi
October 10: Barsapara Stadium, Guwahati
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