India pacer Jasprit Bumrah is excited about the return of Ashish Nehra in the team and is looking forward to pick the veteran pacer's brain during the T20 series against Australia, beginning in Ranchi on Saturday. The 38-year-old Nehra is making a comeback after playing T20I series against England earlier this year.
"He's a very experienced player. I've played some cricket with him. I've played in World Twenty20 with him. It's really good to have him in the side... It's a lot of fun. He has loads of experience to share. He's very helpful for youngsters like me," said Bumrah ahead of the series opener.
"The team's atmosphere becomes good when he comes to the side. It feels great to have him back in the side."
Fitness plays a pivotal role and the onus lies on the cricketer to stay in the pink of health and extend his career, he said.
"It's not only fast bowlers who need to put in the extra effort. Yes, they need to do extra sometimes, but in general, if you are not fit you won't be able to survive. It's the responsibility of the player to look after his diet and training
"Because of the amount of cricket we have been playing nowadays, everybody has to be fit," said Bumrah.
With Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Bumrah at the death, India have developed a potent bowling combination.
"We just want to improve ourselves every time, we keep asking questions to each other. We keep learning from the senior players on what else we can do and how to improve, how to adapt to different conditions and the wickets. The focus is on training. We don't focus on results. We want to get better every game."
India defeated Australia by six wickets the last time both the teams met in World Twenty20 in March 2016, and prior to that they completed a 3-0 clean sweep Down Under in January.
India may be having a 9-3 head to head record but Bumrah said that 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."
Having defeated Australia 4-1 in the one-dayers, India will look for a perfect ending to the limited overs series.
"You do not need a drive when you're playing for India. Any match you love representing your country. You love playing for India. It does not matter what format you play, you have to adapt constantly."
Being a death bowler specialist, Bumrah said his role hardly changes in the ODI and T20 format.
"One-day and T20s are slightly different. In the situations where I bowl, in the death overs, it's very similar. You're hit over here as well as in ODIs. It's not too much of a difference."
Bumrah refused to comment much about the fake fielding law which has been criticised by the cricket experts.
"I have not thought about it much. We do as we are said to do. We don't think too much on rules. We will see what is going to happen when the rule is changed."
Bumrah said he remains unaffected by the FIFA U-17 World Cup fever in India.
"We are right now focusing on cricket and not focusing on football," he signed off.
(With PTI Inputs)
