'It's exciting, not intimidating to play against India's superstars'

IMAGE: India's star batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Photograph: BCCI/X USA batter Aaron Jones said playing against Indian superstars such as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the T20 World Cup will be exciting and not intimidating. The two teams are set for a showdown in the T20 World Cup Group A match in New York on Wednesday. Both India and USA have won two games each so far, which adds more flavour to the contest. The winner of the match 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 team-mates 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. T20 World Cup