Umran Malik will be a sensation: Brian Lara offers important advice to tearaway India pacer
Legendary Brian Lara has come up with an important piece of advice to Umran Malik, saying that tearaway pace should not be the only weapon in the 23-year-old pacer’s arsenal. Lara urged the young pacer to lean from some of the best pacers that the world has produced and how they evolved over time to make a mark at the highest level.
Brian Lara worked with Umran Malik at SunRIsers Hyderabad over the last two years, overseeing his growth in the Indian Premier League. Umran made his IPL debut in 2021 and had a fine run with SRH in 2022, picking up 22 wickets in 14 matches, rushing batters with his raw pace.
Umran Malik’s ODI career has been marked by his inability to cement a spot in the team. In 2023, he played three ODIs before the series against West Indies, all in January, and then didn’t feature in a single game during the Australia ODIs.
His return to the Indian ODI team in July 2023, for the series against West Indies, was met with mixed reviews. While he had previously taken five wickets in two matches against Sri Lanka and recorded a dismissal against New Zealand, his performance in the West Indies series was less than stellar. In the first ODI, he bowled only three overs, conceding 17 runs without taking a wicket. This indifferent outing led to concerns about his form in the white-ball format.
“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’.
‘LOT MORE TRICKS NEEDED’
As for his T20I career, Malik has played eight matches, taking 11 wickets with an economy rate of 10.48, which has been seen as a cause for concern.
Umran Malik said working with a legend like Dale Steyn, who has been the bowling coach at SRH will only help him get better.
Steyn and Umran developed a wonderful working relationship with the young pacer often crediting his success to the inputs from the South African great.Steyn was also seen celebrating Umran’s success from the dugout, feeling elated over his ward’s performances.
“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.
