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‘I don’t look at personal performance’: Jasprit Bumrah to critics after three-for on Day 2 against New Zealand
India vs New Zealand: Jasprit Bumrah said the only thing that bothers him is whether the mindset is correct or not. He picked up 3 wickets on Day 2 of the 2nd Test match at Christchurch.
After roaring back to form with a three-wicket haul during the second day’s play in India vs New Zealand 2nd Test match at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch, Jasprit Bumrah said he never looks at personal performances. Bumrah had copped a bit of criticism for his dry spell in the ODI series as well as the first Test. He went wicketless during the three-match ODI series – for the first time in his career in any series – and looked way off the mark in the first Test at Wellington. All that changed on Sunday, when Bumrah found his rhythm and troubled pretty much all the New Zealand batters with his razor-sharp in-dippers.
“I don’t look at personal performances as I told you. 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,” Bumrah said after the second day’s play.
Bumrah gave India the big breakthrough of New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson with a controlled outswinger early on Day 2. The right-arm seamer then got two wickets – BJ Watling (0) and Tim Southee (0) in one over – in the post-lunch session.
Bumrah 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.
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 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 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 first innings.
The Indian bowlers brought them back in the contest by bowling New Zealand out for 235 in the first innings. Bumrah returned with figures of 3 for 62 while Mohammed picked 4 for 81.
“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 added.
The Indian batsmen, however, faltered once again in the second innings, were reduced to 90 for six with Hanuma Vihari and Rishabh Pant at the crease at stumps. India, who lost the first Test to New Zealand by 10 wickets, lead New Zealand by 97 and would hope their lower order makes a significant contribution to make a match of this ongoing Test.
