Umran Malik is now a household name in India.
Not everyday you see someone bowling in surplus of 150, consistently. But to everyone’s surprise, Umran Malik has not lived up to the expectations so far.
In 9 matches of 50 overs cricket, he has 13 wickets to his name, which is decent performance, but the economy rate shoots up to 6.41, which further shoots up to 10.48 in 8 T20s he has played, which is simply dismissible performance from him, in the shortest of format.
At only 23, the young lad has all the time in the world to learn. But former Indian fast bowler R P Singh has said that Umran Malik lacks on skills, rather than confidence.
“I will still say, his biggest advantage is his pace,” Singh was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. “The problem is the skill. The (ball) movement isn’t much right now, and planning the game (needs to improve). You also have to set batters up. He hasn’t learnt that as quickly as he should have. He concedes run, that remains the biggest worry. So, the Indian team needs to know how and when to use him.”
Cricket is a funny game that gives you the reality check with every game you play. You have to start from zero, keeping aside what you did in the last game.
Umran Malik will have to realise that he will have to soon learn the skills and also how to set the batsman up. You can’t just come and bowl and bowl without any planning.
Brett Lee also didn’t have much movement but his action was more forward and straight to not give batsman much time to deal with.
With slightly orthodox action of Umran Malik, batsman get some time to adjust if there is no movement and bowl is simply holding its line, making him very much hittable.
But all is not gone for the India’s fastest bowler as of now, as RP Singh believes he can be given a long run, if Indian team management thinks he is their “long race horse”.
“By the looks of it, he will remain in the loop for the World Cup. And you can’t develop a player by playing him one game and then benching him for two. If they think Umran Malik is one for the future, they have got to show faith in him and polish him,” R P Singh on his closing remarks on him.
