Last Updated: January 07, 2023, 08:00 AM IST
Umran Malik bowl against Sri Lanka in the second T20I match in Pune against Sri Lanka.
Speaking on his performance, former Pakistan skipper made a lukewarm assessment, saying Umran Malik will learn with experience. According to him, he has a few shortcomings which was clearly visible.
Umran Malik is the new rage on social media especially the way he is turning up the heat with those lethal Yorkers, some of them being literelly fired from his arm at a shear pace of 150 plus. For instance, the ball that dismissed Shanaka in the first match was 155kmph! Not only this was unimaginable for the Indian fans a decade ago, it was almost a matter of joke back in the day when team used to struggle to field a fast bowling all-rounder—a prime reason among experts for 13 consecutive final loss under Sourav Ganguly. However, those days are seem to be history; for, now India not only has a fast bowling all-rounder who is a captain, but someone like Umran who scores 100 on 100 when it comes to the philosphy of ‘pace is pace, yaar.’
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In the recently concluded second T20I match against Sri Lanka, the Jammu Kashmir bowler was again among the wickets, as he registered the figures of 48/3. He absolutely let his shear pace do all the talking and one of the site was seeing Wanindu Hasaranga losing his stumps, but eventually he was effectively carted away by the likes of Dasun Shanaka who went onto slam 50 off 20 balls.
Earlier also Malik managed to grab a couple of wickets in the first T20I in Mumbai, but went for runs.
Speaking on his performance, former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt made a lukewarm assessment, saying Umran will learn with experience. According to him, he has a few shortcomings which was clearly visible.
“You get better with experience. He conceded so many runs because he lacked experience. He was in good rhythm, his action is neat. His pace was right up there. The problem was that the batter was experienced, more intelligent, and he used Umran’s pace very well. Umran was very predictable, neither did he bowl yorkers nor the slower ones,” said Butt.
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“He saw that the batsman was making room for himself, he could have bowled the yorkers outside the off-stump. He didn’t do that too. So, experience matters. And you won’t get experience while sitting outside. You have to let him play. Because he will take wickets and win you the matches from crunch situations.”
All eyes will be on Umran once again when India take on Sri Lanka in the series decider in Rajkot on Saturday. After losing the second match in Pune, Hardik Pandya and his men would surely look to seal the deal and lift the series in a new captaincy era. They beat Sri Lanka in the first T20I in Mumbai.
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