Don’t want to blame batsmen: Bumrah
CHRISTCHURCH: Indian bowlers’ impressive performance in the second Test has been largely undone by a dismal batting show, but pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah doesn’t want to indulge in a “blame game”.
Bumrah and Mohammad Shami shared seven wickets to bowl out New Zealand for 235 and take a seven-run lead, only for India to lose six wickets in the final session for 90 runs on the second day.
“We don’t play the blame game. In our (team) culture, we don’t look at blaming anyone. Some days if as a bowling unit we don’t pick up wickets, then that doesn’t give the batsmen liberty to take our case, isn’t it?” asked Bumrah, defending another dismal show by the top-order batsmen.
Bumrah said he has faith in the ability of Rishabh Pant and Hanuma Vihari to push the opposition hard on the third day though it will be easier said than done.
Pant and Vihari were batting on 5 and one respectively at stumps on the second day. “We as a team want to push it hard and do well but the situation is what it is. We have two batsmen left and we would look to push tomorrow as well. We can try and work hard and score as many as we can and we will see how it goes,” said Bumrah who took three wickets for 62 runs.
“We, as a unit, are very close and we are working hard. We lost more wickets than we wanted to but we don’t play the blame game and we try to keep everyone together,” he said.
Having faced criticism for his dry spell in the ODI series as well as the first Test, Bumrah said he doesn’t worry as long as he felt he is bowling well. “I don’t look at personal performances. You look to do the processes right and you look to bowl well. You look to create pressure. Some days, I will get wickets and some days someone else will. My focus is always on what I could do,” the 26-year-old from Gujarat said.
The only thing that bothers him is whether the mindset is correct or not. “If there’s some problem in my execution and my mindset is not correct, then you address that. You don’t focus on the results, you focus on the processes you can control,” he said.
DENTS ON PITCH
About the Hagley Oval pitch, Bumrah felt that moisture on the first day helped New Zealand bowlers make dents on the track and that kept them in the game on the second day too.
“On the first day, there was a bit of moisture and because of that when they bowled in the first innings, dents were created. There was a bit of seam movement for both the teams and bowlers were there in the game. And you bowl in good areas, you create good pressure. We were also creating a lot of chances and that (dents) could have played a role.” Bumrah was happy that as senior pacers, he and Shami were consistent in creating chances that saw New Zealand trail by seven runs in the first innings.
“As a bowling unit, when we bowled, I thought we created a lot of chances. We will keep on doing that and creating pressure. We will create enough chances and we could get wickets. We were very happy with that as senior members of the team, we have to bowl long spells and we were up for it,” he signed off.