India ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah on Sunday said the focus will still be on keeping the pressure on New Zealand batters, adding, at the same time, that the bowlers cannot blame the batsmen for not showing up.
Indian batsmen had no answer to Trent Boult’s class and were reeling at 90/6, with a slender lead of 97 runs, at stumps on day two of the second Test here at the Hagley Oval. Bumrah took three wickets and Mohammed Shami returned best figures of 4/81 as India had the Kiwis on the mat at lunch with 142/5, replying to India’s first innings score of 242. The tailenders batted well and New Zealand were eventually all out for 235.
The Indian batsmen, however, could not justify their pacers’ good show as Boult (3/12) made light work of them.
“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,” Bumrah said after the day’s play.
“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.
“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.
Bumrah endured a dry spell in the ODIs and drew flak from some quarters as India lost the series 0-3.
“I don’t look at personal performances. You look to do the processes right and you look to bowl well,” he said.
“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 said.
“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 added.