Sunrisers Hyderabad handed a debut to Umran Malik in the 49th game of the tournament against Kolkata Knight Riders. He was picked into the squad as a replacement for T Natarajan who was ruled out of the tournament. Malik turned heads with his pace clocking 150 kmph plus delivery. In fact, by his first two overs, Malik had racked up the nine out of ten fastest deliveries for SRH this season and also made it to the list of players with the fastest deliveries in the IPL. Incidentally, Delhi Capitals’ Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada had dominated the list.
Not much was known about the youngster till he was picked up by SRH for the season. However, just like Abdul Samad he was groomed by former India cricketer Irfan Pathan who also serve as mentor-cum-coach. He hasn’t played a lot of competitive cricket so far having taken a total of four wickets from four matches in domestic cricket for Jammu & Kashmir. Umran had a fabulous performance on his T20 debut picking three crucial wickets and gave away just 24 runs in his quota of four overs against Railways.
Debutant Umran malik click 150 kph pic.twitter.com/uRA4mwLuxx— Salman Yassa (@sal_yassa) October 3, 2021
The young pacer makes his debut in #Risers colours tonight. Go well, Umran! #KKRvSRH #OrangeArmy #OrangeOrNothing #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/QvpStyxOjF— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) October 3, 2021
He was already part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad as a net bowler before the selection call came as Natarajan tested positive. SRH are currently languishing at the bottom half of the IPL 2021 points table with just one victory in eight matches. They need to win their remaining six matches and then depend on net run rate equations to stand any chance of making it to the playoffs.
“Under the Regulation 6.1 (c), franchisees are allowed to sign a short-term replacement player until the original squad member is permitted to re-enter the team’s bio-secure environment," an IPL release had said on Malik’s addition to the Hyderabad squad.
Heres what Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson said about him: “It’s an unfortunate position to be in but there’s quite a bit to gain with growth of players, in difficult conditions, especially against a side like Kolkata. Umran Malik comes in for Sandeep Sharma just to improve the balance of the side. He’s an exciting fast bowling talent."
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