Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer Umran Malik has been sensational in the IPL 2022, picking 15 wickets in just eight matches while bowling at rapid pace. However, former India international RP Singh believes playing him in the T20 World Cup would be too early.
RP Singh was a part of an interaction with Cricbuzz for SRH’s clash against Gujarat Titans on April 27. He argued that while Umran has done well in the recent matches, he doesn’t have much experience in domestic cricket and is only just starting his Premier League career.
Malik rocked GT with his brutal pace, bowling one of the finest spells in the history of the IPL. The 22-year-old returned with the figures of five for 25 and dismissed Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Wriddhiman Saha, David Miller and Abhinav Manohar.
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After his spine-chilling performances in the season, voices have raised for Malik’s inclusion in India’s squad for the 2022 T20 World Cup scheduled to take place in October-November later this year. However, RP Singh believes that the youngster should be kept around and must be groomed properly before he’s tried on the big stage.
“Umran Malik is surely an exciting talent. He should be kept with the team because then you can groom him while keeping the strength of your bench. But playing him right away? I am not in favor of that because he hasn’t played much domestic and even in IPL, he has only just started to do well,”
said the former India pacer.
Malik is currently the second leading wicket-taker in the ongoing edition of the IPL with 15 scalps. He was expensive in the first few games but has then returned with 2/27, 4/28, 1/13 and 5/25 in the last four games. Singh also said that Malik has done very well to turn things around after a poor start and should be kept with the team so he can fine-tune his skill set:
“He is on the stepping stones of improvement, if he stays with the team, bowls to world-class bowlers in the nets, he’ll get that fine-tuning done. You can keep him in the team for the future but it’s perhaps a bit too early to play him.”
Malik bowls at 150 kmph consistently and has worked on his control and field placement as well. The speedster acts as a proper enforcer in the middle overs, wreaking havoc on the opponents. The future promises to be bright for him, and the time might not be far when the player shares the duties with Jasprit Bumrah for the national team.
