Former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull was impressed with Umran Malik’s debut in One Day Internationals against New Zealand in the series opener. Umran, who became a sensation through Indian Premier League, breached the 140kmph mark at regular intervals to trouble the host batters. The Jammu and Kashmir pacer claimed a couple of wickets while the others bowlers had an off day as India lost the match by 7 wickets while defending the 307-run target.
Umran had a breakthrough season in IPL this year as he claimed 22 wickets in 14 matches and won the Emerging Player of the Year award. He made his T20I debut earlier this year on Ireland tour, but the selectors decided to put him in the domestic circuit to get groomed for the big stage.
The 23-year-old has the ability to clock 145 kmph at regular intervals as he did the same on his ODI debut on Friday.
The former New Zealand pacer suggested that Umran looked good on his debut he has a lot of work to do to unleash his best version on the big stage.
“It was a decent debut, you know. You ask him to go out and bowl quickly and I thought it was controlled early on. He was very good and wasn’t wayward, which we saw at times through the IPL. To me, it was a really good debut on a tough pitch. I think there’s a lot to work with. You can’t judge a guy by one performance,” Doull was quoted as saying to Cricbuzz.
Doull pointed out that Umran has played very few List A matches and playing on batting-friendly pitches will not be easy for him but he did well on his debut.
“Remember, he has only played three List A games prior to tonight and so, he is learning. It’s never ever going to be easy against quality players on quality batting pitches. I am going to give him a pass mark tonight and watch his improvement as the series goes on,” he added.
Meanwhile, Latham took the game away from India, hitting an inexperienced bowling attack all over the park to end up unbeaten on a career-best score of 145 off 104 balls, laced with 19 fours and five sixes.
He also stitched an unbeaten 221-run stand off 165 balls with skipper Kane Williamson, who was the perfect ally and was unconquered at 94 not out to chase the total with 17 balls remaining. For India, they lost the plot with the ball when Latham and Williamson were attacking them, especially after the 40th over.
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