IND vs ENG: Umran Malik Should Be In India's Test Squad Says Former Indian Selector Saba Karim

Umran Malik became well-known after tormenting batters in the IPL 2022 with thunderbolts that regularly clocked in at 150 kph or more while bowling for Jammu and Kashmir.

Amazingly, in the 14 IPL games he played last year, he won all 14 honours for the quickest delivery of the match. Many have said that he needs to be fast-tracked into the Indian senior team due to his ability to summon sheer speed. Others, though, have reservations about speeding up this procedure. 

Umran Malik Has That Rare Quality Of Pace: Saba Karim

Saba Karim, a former Indian wicket-keeper batter and national selector, supported Umran’s fast-tracked inclusion in the Indian senior squad while a guest on Sportscast, a sports podcast produced by the Times of India.  

“Umran Malik has that rare quality of pace. You can add more variety, more control, and more discipline to his bowling – which will happen – one has never seen this kind of speed ever in the Indian set-up. If we have someone like him, what are we waiting for?

If you ask me I would get him in the Test squad. Just play him, because he has had 2-3 years of experience in First-Class cricket plus IPL, which means that he is not raw,” Saba Karim had said on TOI Sportscast. 

The current selection committee seems to concur with that, and Umran, who was also an India net bowler for the T20 World Cup in 2021, received his first cap on the two-T20 tour of Ireland, less than a month after the conclusion of the IPL 2022.

Umran Malik’s 2022 So Far

Let’s quickly review Umran’s IPL statistics from the 2022 season and then contrast them with what he has accomplished for India thus far in the three T20 Internationals he has participated in so far.

Umran played all 14 games for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2022, who kept him pre-auction for a price of Rs 4 Crore. The tearing fast bowler has a 20.18 average with 22 wickets in his second IPL season. His economy rate was greater than average at -9.03, and his best numbers were 5-25. In the last IPL season, he got two 4-wicket hauls and one 5-wicket haul. 

Umran has performed remarkably well for the Indian squad, in stark contrast to his IPL reputation. In the two-match T20I series against Ireland in June, he made his international debut. He only bowled one over in the first game, during which he conceded 14 runs without recording a wicket.

Umran, a 22-year-old pacer, recorded figures of 1-42 in the second game after substitute skipper Hardik Pandya gave him his full allotment of 4 overs. He took four fours, two sixes, and three wide balls in addition to being struck. 

The third T201 match against England in Nottingham, which the hosts won by 17 runs, was his third appearance while wearing the India blue shirt. Umran once more bowled his allotted four overs in this game, however this time he only managed to get one wicket while giving up 56 runs. He had a 14 economy rating. He was hammered for six fours, three sixes, and three wide balls. 

Umran Malik Needs Time: Anjum Chopra

Anjum Chopra, a former captain of the Indian cricket team, was a guest on the Times of India’s sports podcast Sportscast earlier this year. He discussed how competing in the IPL and representing India internationally are very different from one another and how Umran should be given time to fully develop his abilities before making an India debut. 

“Wearing an orange and black jersey is different to wearing an India blue jersey, completely different. The setting is completely different. Give the player ample time to realise his talent.

Let him travel (with the India team), but to say that he is the future of Indian cricket – yes he is a future – but let’s not put all the eggs in the same basket. Let the player grow properly so that he is able to sustain himself when he is actually at the next level,” Anjum had said on TOI Sportscast. 

Umran Malik Has Something That Others Don’t Have: Aakash Chopra

Umran is without a doubt a highly unique skill. Bowling at the type of speeds he produces requires an innate skill that cannot be developed. Aakash Chopra, a former cricketer for India, recently expressed a similar opinion on his YouTube channel. 

“Umran Malik has something that others don’t have – extreme pace. You can’t teach that to anyone. You can teach everything else – line and length, yorker, bouncer, slower ones. But you can’t teach someone how to bowl with speed. You are either born a pacer or born a medium-pacer… No doubt, he has the pace.

But what I feel is that Umran Malik is not ready for international cricket as of now. It is very simple, he needs time. He hasn’t played a lot of cricket and so he is still raw,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.  

Umran is fortunate to be 22 years old. He is thankfully not a late discovery. Everyone is aware of his uncommon talent thanks to the Sunrisers Hyderabad, who saw it when he was still a net bowler for them and recognised it, and the platform the IPL offers. Umran recorded a 157kmph speed during an IPL 2022 match against the Delhi Capitals. 

Another school of thought holds that Umran needs to be given a chance in Test cricket rather than being pushed at the moment as a T20I bowler.

But based on what we’ve seen thus far from the speed phenom, the Indian team management and selectors will undoubtedly be aware that giving him the time and space to develop as a cricketer before releasing him full-time as an India player would be the most sensible course of action.

Naturally, it will be essential to closely monitor Umran’s development and make sure he is not overlooked among the many other young fast bowlers rising through the ranks. 

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