'Team in transition, no one to blame': Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah in Brisbane yesterday. Pic/Getty Images

Jasprit Bumrah on Monday defended the struggling Indian team in Australia and played down talk of additional pressure on him, saying it's a side in transition and given his experience, it's his "job" to shoulder extra responsibility.

Having taken a seemingly erroneous call of bowling first in the third Test at the Gabba here, India conceded a huge first-innings total of 445 despite Bumrah returning 6-76. In response, the visitors were 51-4 on a rain-hit third day.

Also Read: Rain plays spoilsport as India end day 3 at 51/4 in reply to Australia's 445

"We don't, as a team, point fingers at each other and we don't want to get into that mindset where we are pointing fingers at each other that ‘you should do this, you should do that'," Bumrah told media after stumps when asked for his assessment of India's batting.

"We, as a team, are going through a transition, new players are coming here and it's not the easiest place to play cricket. Over here, it's a different atmosphere with this wicket being a different challenge so yeah, we are not looking at that."

Bumrah, who leads the bowling chart in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with 18 wickets so far, defended the Indian attack amid chatter that he is not getting adequate support from fellow bowlers. "As a bowling unit, as I said, we are in transition so it's my job to help the others. I have played a little more than them so I am trying to help them," he said.

Bumrah revealed that his pace partner Mohammed Siraj has been bowling with a niggle and praised him for fighting through pain. Siraj claimed two wickets in his 23.2 overs.

"In this game, I will give him credit that he had a little bit of a niggle, but he still kept on bowling and still helped the team because he knew if he goes inside and he doesn't bowl, then that team will go under pressure," he said.

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