The Indian media has urged champion paceman Jasprit Bumrah to start holding his underperforming batters accountable, as they threaten to put his exceptional performances in Australia to waste.

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India slumped to 4-51 in the first innings of the third Test. They may be saved by rain and time, but have otherwise put themselves at risk of falling behind 2-1 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

Writing for the Hindustan Times, R Kaushik said that Bumrah had the right to put the heat on his teammates.

“‘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.’ So said Jasprit Bumrah on Monday, a few hours after bowling his heart out to pick up six for 76, and not long after watching his top-order batters gifting their wickets to Australia’s high-class pace attack,” Kaushik wrote.

“Maybe you should start doing that, Jasprit. Maybe you should start pointing fingers. Maybe that will spur them into showing greater discipline, into showing greater respect and appreciation for your genius.

“For the third time this series, India’s batting line-up came a cropper in the first innings. Not necessarily because Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins were unplayable, but because of their own unwillingness to put a price on their scalps. Because of their propensity to play strokes without getting set. Because of their inability to learn from the masterclass in self-denial put on by Australia’s top three.”

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Kaushik himself pointed the finger at “a very, very poor stroke” from Shubman Gill that saw him fall to Mitchell Starc. The batting of Virat Kohli, despite his Perth century, is also causing consternation.

Writing for the Indian Express, Sriram Veera examined whether Kohli’s decline echoed that of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag on the 2011-12 tour of Australia. India lost 4-0.

“Where do we start about the few minutes of madness when Indians drove themselves crazy? Perhaps best to start with Virat Kohli, who should have known better,” Veera wrote of day three at the Gabba, before delving into Kohli’s “self-destructive streak”.

“There is one other difference in relation to that 2011 tour – Kohli’s travails here can’t be compared with Tendulkar’s then. That one was a rather strange tour for Tendulkar who kept looking like a million bucks until the moment of error that would get him out. In contrast, Kohli hasn’t looked good, be it in Perth’s first innings or at Adelaide. It would remain a puzzle why Tendulkar kept getting out after looking good on that tour – unlike Dravid, say, who was sorted out by Ben Hilfenhaus and VVS Laxman. With Kohli, there is no puzzle to why he has been getting out.”

The Times of India picked up comments from former India Test No.3 Cheteshwar Pujara, questioning Kohli’s technique against the new ball; to which he has been exposed too often. He said that despite Kohli specifically training for Australia’s bowling plans, he had not coped.

“We are discussing that he has been forced to play the new ball. He has gotten out whenever he has played the new ball. When he played the old ball, he scored a hundred in Perth. So that’s also a very big point,” Pujara said on Star Sports.

“His technique is not made for the new ball. His batting should come after 10, 15 or 20 overs. If he plays the new ball, the bowlers are fresh, and their confidence is also high. When they get two wickets, the entire team is charged up. So when you come to bat at that stage, it’s not easy.

“When the bowling is happening in just one area, on the fourth to sixth stump, and he is playing that and getting out, it’s not a good thing. He understands that himself. We saw in the net session as well that he was leaving balls in that area, but that execution is not happening in the match.

“In the match, for some reason, he wants to leave the ball but is unable to, and the bat is going there. So he will have to stop himself. He will have to change his mindset. There is a technical part that you are playing a delivery outside off-stump. However, if you have to leave the same delivery, it’s not a very big technical adjustment but he needs to make a bigger mental adjustment.”

Writing for the New Indian Express, Gomesh S said that Kohli’s weakness was now common knowledge.

“Who didn’t help themselves? Indian batters. Virat Kohli. Every cricket watcher in the world knows Kohli chases balls outside off-stump. So one has to assume Kohli knows too. He puts in the time in nets, looks as good as he can, and the sound off his bat is music, but none of it matters when he gets on the field. What matters here is the discipline the batter shows, especially early in the innings.”

Writing for the Deccan Herald, Madhu Jawali lamented the timing of Kohli’s dismissal.

There was a time when Virat Kohli walked out to bat, a quiet confidence flowed through the Indian camp. These days it has been replaced by trepidation. And as if on cue, the struggling warrior who seemed to have turned the clock back with a century in Perth, fell to his favourite mode of dismissal. Poking at one outside off-stump by Josh Hazlewood and safely nicking it behind. Soon after, it started raining. Who knows what would have happened if only Kohli had survived that one delivery!