Brisbane Test: McSweeney hopes to throw a few punches at Bumrah

Brisbane, Dec 12 (PTI) Rookie Australia opener Nathan McSweeney hopes to "throw a few more punches" at the Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in the third Test at the Gabba, starting Saturday.

Bumrah tuned out to be McSweeney's nemesis in his maiden Test series as he dismissed the right-hander thrice in the last two games but he came back well with a gutsy first innings 39 in the first innings of the second Test in Adelaide. The young opener feels that it couldn't get better initiation to international cricket than face someone with Bumrah's skill level.

"To get a bowler like Jasprit early on my career, it's not going to get much tougher than that. I can take some confidence getting through a spell in Adelaide, and the more I face him, the more comfortable I'll get against him. It's challenging, no doubt, but it's nice to get a little bit of confidence from Adelaide, and hopefully continue throughout the series," he told cricket.com.au.

"Facing him for the first time, he's quite a unique bowler … So (it's) just (about) adapting to his angle and where he delivers on the crease. I got two pretty good balls from him (in Perth), so (I) try and just wear that on the chin and trust that what I've been doing is going to be good enough.

"He got me again in Adelaide … (but) I'm really enjoying the experience (of trying to) work out a game plan on the run against a world-class bowler," McSweeney said.

"Hopefully, I'll get better the more I face him, and I can throw a few more punches hopefully here at the Gabba." The 25-year-old has worked closely with Marnus Labuschagne during his early days in Queensland and then at South Australia, and the two complements each other while batting together.

"He's (Labuschagne) a beauty of a guy. I think what we see on TV when the bowler is bowling the ball, he's really intense, but in between overs, he's actually quite calm," McSweeney said.

"It gives me confidence just realizing that we're all going through the same stuff – I'm (in my) first game, trying to work it out, (and) he's 50 games in, still trying to tinker and work things out … it's a very important series, we're not quite all batting the way we want to, but there's always room for learning and tinkering, and we haven't all quite worked it out yet.

"So that gave me a little bit of confidence – we're always striving to be better, and I think that's what makes guys like Steve (Smith) and Marnus really good." PTI