Former cricketing legend Brian Lara has provided valuable advice to 23-year-old fast bowler Umran Malik, emphasizing that relying solely on sheer pace is not sufficient. Lara, who worked closely with Malik during his time at SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), encouraged the young talent to learn from the evolution of some of the world’s best pacers and their ability to make a significant impact at the highest level of the game. Lara’s remarks come two months prior to the World Cup 2023.
“He will be a sensation, but very quickly he will have to learn that fast bowling really does not trouble the best players in the world. You have to have the ability to do something with the ball, be sensible, and maybe understand times when you have to trickle back or understand the times when you have to up the tempo. He is very young and has got a lot of years ahead of him,” Brian Lara said on a YouTube show ‘Wake Up With Sorabh’.
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Having debuted in the IPL in 2021 and subsequently performing impressively for SRH in 2022 with 22 wickets in 14 matches, Umran Malik’s journey has been notable. However, his progress in One Day Internationals (ODIs) has been marked by inconsistency. Despite starting his ODI career in 2023 with three matches in January, he faced exclusion during the Australia ODIs.
His return to the ODI squad in July 2023 for the India vs West Indies series was met with mixed reactions. While he had previously shown promise with five wickets in two matches against Sri Lanka and a dismissal against New Zealand, his performance in the West Indies series was underwhelming. In the opening ODI, Malik bowled three overs, conceding 17 runs without taking any wickets. This performance raised concerns about his form in limited-overs cricket.
In T20 Internationals (T20Is), Umran Malik has participated in eight matches, taking 11 wickets, but his economy rate of 10.48 has been seen as an area of worry. Malik acknowledged the positive impact of working with the legendary Dale Steyn, who serves as the bowling coach at SRH. The strong rapport between Steyn and Malik has contributed to the latter’s success, with Steyn visibly elated and supportive of Malik’s achievements from the team’s dugout.
“We have had so many different examples. Wasim Akram was raw pace, Malcolm Marshall had destructive pace, and Michael Holding. But they all know that at some point in time, they have had to come up with a lot more tricks than just being able to bowl fast. If he (Umran Malik) works with Dale Steyn, he could definitely be one of the best India could produce,” he added.
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