Jos Buttler hopes last summer's hit-out with the Sydney Thunder can help him make this season's short stint in the Big Bash League a successful one.
Buttler and England teammate Joe Root will be available for the Thunder only for their opening seven games of this year's elongated competition, before they fly to the Caribbean with their national team.
The pair will play their second game of the summer for the Thunder in their Christmas Eve clash with cross-town rivals the Sydney Sixers, after both sides had begun with opening-weekend wins.
Buttler started slowly in last summer's BBL, but exploded towards the end with two half-centuries in his final three games before leaving for England international duties.
Having hit only 20 in Friday night's win over the Melbourne Stars, he has the potential to be one of the competition's most-dangerous players, given he strikes at 144 in the game's shortest form.
"To come in with that familiarity always helps compared with a new environment," the wicketkeeper-batsman said .
"The familiarity is good with the players and the set-up. There's a change of coach (in Shane Bond) but the set-up around the club is very similar."
Like most at the Thunder, Buttler has been most impressed by the start of teenage sensation Jason Sangha.
The 19-year-old became the youngest player in BBL history to hit a half-century with his 36-ball 63 against the Stars, while he also made a half-century against the Sixers last week in a warm-up game.
"He was around as a rookie last year for a couple of weeks before he went into Australian under-19s," Buttler said.
"That Sixers game, he was brilliant in the warm-up, he was hitting the ball far and the other guys were saying they'd seen him whack it like that before.
"And then watching him the other night, the freedom he has as a young player. He's very mature for a young guy as well.
"We all knew what he was capable of and the ceiling is very high for him."
Sixers captain Moises Henriques will have to pass a late fitness test to feature in the Spotless Stadium clash.
Henriques injured his calf on Saturday in the Sixers' win over Perth and did not field in the second innnings, but was named in the visitors' 13-man squad.
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