After suffering a crushing eight-wicket defeat at the hands of New Zealand in their second T20 World Cup match, India pacer Jasprit Bumrah highlighted the bio-bubble fatigue that cricketers are dealing with during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Team India were outclassed by New Zealand in all departments and the Men in Blue will now need other games to go their way if they are to reach the semi-finals.
"Absolutely you need a break sometimes. You miss your family. You have been on the road for six months. So all of that sometimes play on the back of your mind but when you are on the field, you don’t think about all of those things. You don’t control a lot of things. All the scheduling goes on or what, what tournament is played when. So obviously staying in a bubble and staying away from your family for such a long period of time does play a role on players' minds as well," Bumrah said in the virtual post-match press conference on October 31.
"But BCCI has also tried their best to make us feel comfortable. This is the time in which we are living right now. It's a difficult time. There is a pandemic going on. We try to adapt but sometimes bubble fatigue, mental fatigue also creeps in and you are doing the same thing again and again. It is what it is and you can't control a lot of it here," he added.
India posted a below-par 110/7 in their allotted 20 overs after being invited to bat first by the Kiwis. All the batters looked tentative and Ravindra Jadeja top scored with 26 not out.
In reply, the Kiwis chase down the target with 33 balls to spare on the back of Daryl Mitchell’s quickfire 49 and skipper Kane Williamson’s unbeaten 33.
Bumrah also revealed what sort of discussion went with the batters on providing cushion to the bowlers.
"We realise once you lose the toss, the wicket changes in the second innings. So obviously I felt that we wanted to give cushion and it was the discussion (with batters) that we want to give cushion to the bowlers. We went attacking a little early and the longer boundary actually came into the play. They used the slower balls well, they used the wicket quite well to their advantage and they made it difficult for our batters to play big shots. And the singles were not on the offer so they went for higher risk shots," he said.
India will take on Afghanistan in their next match in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday (November 3).
(With ANI inputs)
