Young India pacer Umran Malik received his debut cap ahead of the 1st T20I against Ireland at The Village, Dublin. Umran impressed many during IPL 2022 for Sunrisers Hyderabad where he clocked 150 kph at regular intervals to trouble the opposition. The Jammu and Kashmir pacer was picked in India’s squad for the recently concluded five-match T20I series against South Africa but he didn’t get a chance in the playing XI.
However, on Sunday, Umran received his debut cap from veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar who is the vice-captain in the series against Ireland. The BCCI posted a couple of photos where Umran is seen receiving the cap from Bhuvneshwar.
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“A dream come true moment!! Congratulations to Umran Malik who is all set to make his T20I debut for #TeamIndia He gets cap No.98,” BCCI captioned the post.
A dream come true moment!!Congratulations to Umran Malik who is all set to make his T20I debut for #TeamIndia
He gets No.98 #IREvIND pic.twitter.com/8JXXsRJFbW
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 26, 2022
The IPL 2022 played a crucial role in Umran’s entry into the Indian team. It was the second season in IPL for Umran as earlier he was signed by SRH as a replacement of T Natarajan midway in IPL 2021. The 2016 IPL champions retained the pace sensation ahead of the auction and it turned out quite well for both parties.
He claimed 22 wickets for SRH this year which included a five-wicket haul.
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya will also make his debut as Indian captain in the first T20I. The flamboyant all-rounder was chosen as the captain in the absence of other senior stars. While NCA chief VVS Laxman is travelling with the team as the head coach in absence of Rahul Dravid who is currently with the red-ball team in England.
India have been forced to hand the captaincy duties to too many players due to injuries, scheduling issues and workload management over the past 24 months. Hardik joins that list for the one-off Ireland series and expectations will be high from him after his exploits with the Gujarat Titans.
The two games will give the think tank more clarity on identifying the core group of players for the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year and the team for the three games against a strong England next month.
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