Umran malik has been selected as net bowler for Indian T20 world cup. The young speedster came to limelight in the world's most elite T20 franchise cricket competition with a relatively low reputation and minimal acclaim as he had just made his List A debut this very year.
Although Malik just got the opportunity to play 3 matches for the Orange Army in the ongoing UAE leg of IPL 2021, he more than cemented his name as a future force to reckon with by bowling at express speeds least expected from an Indian bowler leave alone overseas internationals.
Malik clocked 152.95 km/h on the speed gun in last night's IPL match against MI in Abu Dhabi before he rattled up an on song Suryakumar Yadav aka SKY with a meaty bouncer that struck the dashing middle-order Mumbai batter on the helmet. He bowled at 152.95 km/h on the third ball of the 19th over
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Umran Malik told to his teammate Bhuvneshwar Kumar that former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan had a huge impact on him when he used to play for India and also while he served as a mentor of Jammu and Kashmir.
Umran didn't just bowl quick, he bowled quick on a surface where the other bowlers are finding success by taking pace off the ball, with cutters that gripped. He bowled quick enough to have Maxwell - in supreme hitting form - hopping and being late on the ball. He bowled so quick he registered 153kph on the speed gun, the fastest delivery in IPL 2021 so far.
Cricketing journeys don't travel at the speed of an Umran thunderbolt, and his has barely begun. It has already taken him almost a full season of being a net bowler with Sunrisers, and then Covid-19 hitting a team-mate, to get an opportunity.
The first time Umran bowled to the likes of David Warner and Kane Williamson in the Sunrisers Hyderabad nets, he was scared. A fear borne out of nerves. "I was first scared to bowl to them, I was very nervous," he told iplt20.com. "Then I prayed to god that let me bowl well to them. I thought if I have to beat them I have to hit the right length. I kept beating them and I learned from that, I kept bowling on that same length. That made a big difference."
At his first Under-19 trial, he didn't even know there existed shoes with spikes for fast bowlers. He was bowling in jogging shoes.
"I used to bowl quickly from the start. I used to play tennis-ball cricket, and there too I was the quickest. I would bowl fast yorkers there in one-over matches," he said. "In 2018, there was a trial for Under-19 cricketers. I bowled there and the selectors saw me. The first time I came for trials I didn't even know what spikes were. I was bowling in jogging shoes. A friend was there with me, he gave me spikes to play. So then I came into the Under-19 team for one-dayers. And the next year I played Under-23. I was practicing regularly since 2018. Then I played in the Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali. And then I was a net bowler with the franchise."
Team-mate Jason Holder confirmed how much of a tough time Umran had given the batters in the nets. "He's just been consistent in training, he's been giving us quite a hard time in training," Holder said at the post-match press conference. "He's been very, very hard to get hold of… Extra pace always adds a boost to any bowling attack. It's good to see his control as well too. A lot of guys who bowl quick over the years, may sometimes seem erratic but he's been pretty consistent. He's grouped really good deliveries together."
In his first three overs in particular, which Holder termed as a 'grouping' of good deliveries together was in evidence. There was movement off the pitch, to right-hander and left-hander, while the pace meant the batters had to be extra vigilant. Royal Challengers had prepared for Umran, but you can't exactly replicate facing 150kph deliveries in the middle.
"He tends to bowl hard lengths, so that was pretty clear in terms of what we were expecting today," Royal Challengers coach Mike Hesson said. "But yeah, if you haven't faced a bowler for the first time and they run in and bowl quick, obviously it does take a few balls to line it up. If he bowls nice and tight, which he did in terms of his lines, then it can be tough to score."
There are a lot of ingredients for success, with the one skill that can't be coached: pace. In time, Umran will be studied more, analysed more, have more advice in his ears, have people springing up to grab his 15 seconds of fame. But whether he makes it through that or not is for later. For now, it's about a 21-year-old pulling back a match in a trying period, and doing it while bowling 150kph. Pace is pace.
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