espnstar.com's Rajarshi Gupta spoke to Mumbai Indians all-rounder Abhishek Nayar, who said he can fit into any role.

"I am not concentrating exclusively on either batting or bowling. I hope I can be useful to the team whenever I am needed."

The young cricketer, who stormed into the limelight last year with his blistering batting in the IPL, has certainly shown how useful he can be.

He chipped in with an invaluable 35, smoking the Chennai bowling attack to different parts of Newlands in Cape Town.

Nayar had a decent first edition of the IPL last year, scoring 206 runs from 15 games at an average of 25.75. Considering, he came in at number six in most of the matches; the southpaw did play a good hand with the bat back in India.

"I had a good outing in the IPL last year and I am really excited about the second edition too."

However, Nayar did admit that it was disappointing not to play the IPL in India after the high profile Twenty20 event had to be shifted to South Africa, clashing as it did with the general elections in the country of its origin.

"I will miss the usual buzz in Mumbai when the whole crowd would get behind us to cheer us on," Nayar said.

Nayar said he was also happy that local lad Zaheer Khan has come back for the Mumbai Indians after appearing for the Bangalore Royal Challengers last year.

"Zaheer is a champion bowler and it is great to have him back. It is always a good experience to bowl alongside him."

Meanwhile, Nayar also sounded enthused with the appointment of Mumbai's Ranji coach and former India batsman Praveen Amre as the assistant coach of the Mumbai Indians.

"Amre has been a great coach at the domestic level. The domestic players in the team have a good understanding with him and I am sure he would be able to work wonders for us during the IPL."

By the look of things from Saturday's opening encounter, the soft-spoken Nayar is in South Africa to make some noise.