Umran Malik has impressed the cricket fraternity to the core by exhibiting his amazing bowling skills on multiple occasions in IPL 2022. The well-built fast bowler from J&K has the ability to bowl consistently at 150kph and therefore has been a headache for the opponent batters in the tournament. Looking at Umran's skillset, many cricket pundits have asked the Indian management to launch the youngster at the international level.
Apart from some former Indian cricketers, someone from the other side of the border has recently heaped praises on the fiery fast bowler. The ex-Pakistani cricketer Kamran Akmal has opined that Umran should represent India in the near future.
Addressing a Pakistani news agency, Akmal even went on to say that if Umran was a Pakistani, he would've played international cricket by now as he has the habit of picking wickets regularly despite going for a few runs. To justify his point, Akmal cited the examples of Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar, who also used to be slightly expensive at times but were regarded as outright match-winners with the ball.
"If he was in Pakistan, maybe he would have played international cricket. His economy is high, but he is a strike bowler since he is getting wickets. Brett Lee and Shoaib (Akhtar) bhai were also expensive, but they picked up wickets and that's how strike bowlers should be," Akmal said.
Continuing, Akmal said that Umran's pace never seems to go downhill, which is a very positive sign. The former Pakistani keeper also stressed that it's a time when the Indian team is boosted with many extremely quick fast bowlers, unlike in the past, and having too many quality options has made it incredibly tough for the selectors to pick only a few of them for the national side.
"After every match, his speed chart comes where he clocks around 155 km/h and it's not going down", Akmal said. "It's a good competition in the Indian team. Earlier, Indian cricket lacked quality fast bowlers, but now they have a plethora of pacers like Navdeep Saini, Siraj, Shami and Bumrah. Even Umesh Yadav is bowling beautifully. With 10-12 pacers in the ranks, it's becoming tough for Indian selectors to make selections," the 40-year-old concluded.