After India’s embarrassing eight-wicket defeat at the hands of New Zealand, pacer Jasprit Bumrah on Sunday (October 31) said it is difficult to judge whether veteran spinner R Ashwin’s presence in the playing XI would have made a difference to the eventual outcome.
Team India were outplayed by the Kiwis in their second T20 World Cup 2021 match, and they will now need other games to go in their favour to reach the semi-finals.
"In hindsight, we can say a lot of things. In hindsight we could have wished to score a lot more runs or got, lost more wickets. Obviously, he (Ravichandran Ashwin) is an experienced bowler, he adds a lot of value in our bowling attack whenever he comes.
"But in hindsight, it is very difficult as I told you there is dew in second innings and when the balls don't grip the options becomes very rare and very little. In hindsight you may say he might have made a difference but it is too difficult to judge right now," Bumrah said in the post-match press conference, as quoted by ANI.
Ish Sodhi w(2-17), Trent Boult (3-20), Tim Southee (1-26), and Adam Milne (1-30) did a brilliant job with the ball as New Zealand restricted India to a paltry 110/7 in 20 overs. All the Indian batters looked tentative in their approach and Ravindra Jadeja top scored with 26 not out.
Bumrah said India wanted a cushion of some extra runs while batting first and it made the side go on the field with an attacking mindset.
"I think as a batting unit what we were trying to do is we know in the second innings dew does play a massive role so we tried to give us a cushion to have some extra runs," said Bumrah.
"In doing that, we played a lot of attacking shots and that didn't come off today as we know that in second innings batting does get easier," he added.
In reply, the Black Caps overhauled the target in just 14.3 overs on the back of Daryl Mitchell’s quickfire 49 and skipper Kane Williamson’s unbeaten 33.
"In sports, there are good days and there are bad days. I try not to get very high when good days happen and not very low when low (bad) days happen. Try to stay strong and move forward. That's what I can say," Bumrah concluded.
(With ANI inputs)
