American batting star Aaron Jones on Tuesday said he is excited to play former champions India today when the two Group A sides clash in their maiden T20 World Cup match in New York.
The two sides are unbeaten after two matches each. Jones produced a match-winning knock of unbeaten 94 when USA beat Canada on June 1.
Jones also said playing against Indian superstars Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will be ;exciting and not intimidating;, according to a PTI reported published on Tuesday.
After their win over Canada, the USA stunned Pakistan in a Super Over battle six days ago.
The winner of the match today will seal their place in the Super Eight stage.
“It is actually exciting, me growing up as a kid, I always wanted to play against the best players in the world. I am definitely going to get the opportunity to do that now and it’s exciting for me, I don’t want to say intimidating,” Jones said in the pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
“I am excited to play against them and talk to them. Definitely to beat them as well,” he added.
Jones said the India-origin players in the US camp, who at some stage in their lives had played cricket with some of the current Indian players, would be excited to link up with their former teammates as well.
“They are pretty excited to be honest. This is the first time USA will be playing against India. So many guys in our team are from India they actually played against and with so many guys back in the past, so they definitely (would) be excited to play against some friends for sure,” he said.
Jones also hoped cricket would be able to find much bigger space in the hearts of American sports lover after this World Cup.
“With cricket being one of the biggest sports in the world, it’s only a matter of time before a majority people come on board,” he said.
“America is a place where people love sports. Obviously, this World Cup is going to open the eyes of a lot of people and then in a few years, you have cricket in the Olympics — that’s a very big thing as well. I think everything is on the rise right now,” he added.
Meanwhile India will not be taking minnows USA lightly today, bowling coach Paras Mhambrey said on Tuesday.
India beat Pakistan by six runs in their previous match.
“You can’t take any game lightly. This is this the World Cup. Every game matters. Your your rhythm is important. Winning is a habit that you need to get into early. You need to get it early to form the context of the game,” Mhambrey told reporters on Tuesday.
“But if you look at the context of the game, look at the tournament, the pressure, the way to have them handle the pressure, this (game against Pakistan) was definitely a very much up there in terms of the performance,” he told the media on the eve of their contest against USA.