Promising Canberra left-armer Nick Winter is soaking in as much knowledge as he can during his stint with the Melbourne Renegades in the Twenty20 Big Bash League.
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After making his debut in last week's game with the Perth Scorchers, the 21-year-old has been omitted for Tuesday night's encounter with the Sydney Thunder at Etihad Stadium following the return of Test pacemen James Pattinson and Peter Siddle.
Winter made a strong account for himself at a sold-out WACA, opening the bowling for the Renegades and finishing with the figures of 0-15 from two overs.
The Eastlake and ACT Comets product got his chance with the Renegades which is missing Pattinson, Siddle and experienced swing bowler Nathan Rimmington.
Winter is the young pup among a star-studded Renegades team featuring Australian Twenty20 captain Aaron Finch, wicketkeeper Matthew Wade and West Indies duo Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell.
"Everyone's either a really successful state player or an international player so I felt a little bit out of my depth, but I've just been trying to learn as much as I can off them," Winter said.
"Siddle's been around for a few of the trial games, Finch and Wade are always around the team and the international boys (Bravo and Russell) are good role models.
"Getting a game came a little bit earlier than expected, but it was good to tick that first one off."
Winter was thrown into the deep end, taking the new ball against the defending champion Scorchers.
He conceded just three runs in his first over before copping a bit of stick in his second.
"The most people I've played in front of is 200 people, then you get 20,000 people at the WACA, so it was a pretty good experience," Winter said.
"I was trying to block it out as much as I could, I got hit for my first run and the crowd erupted, it sort of sunk in then that they were a pretty hostile crowd.
"In terms of a tough initiation, it's going to be one of the toughest.
"Just to get that out of the road was not too bad."
Winter made his one-day domestic debut earlier this season with South Australia and is hoping to break into the state's Sheffield Shield team later in the summer.
He is the latest Canberra product to play in the BBL – much to the delight of Renegades coach Simon Helmot, who coached the ACT Comets from 2005 to 2007.
"I think Nick has a lot of promise and hopefully he gets more opportunities this season," Helmot said.
"As he gets bigger and stronger, he'll certainly have the capacity to bowl quicker, that will come as he develops and improves.
"He's got some skills, hitting the deck and swinging the ball and he's developing his slower balls, too."