SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir’s top pacer, whose supportive reportage was much faster than his bowling faced a bout of momentary roosting on social media after he proved expensive in a T20 match with England. In four hours, he succeeded in taking the England opener, Jason Roy, but ended up giving 56 runs, which is being seen as the most expensive for an Indian bowler, media reports said.
Malik was hit most by Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan and later Chris Jordan. India eventually lost the T20 match by 17 runs as England scored 215/7.
Umran Malik was playing his third T20I. He had conceded 42 runs in his previous match. In the series, Malik was not unable to bowl as fast as was expected. His bowling never crossed 146 km an hour.
“We are happy to announce that Umran Malik has joined our prestigious Dinda academy of excellence. Hope he will flourish more under my and king unadkat guidance. Many more such performances to come in upcoming years. He is here to stay in the academy,” one Twitter handle said. “We are happy to announce that Umran Malik has joined our prestigious Dinda academy of excellence,” added another.
Even the professionals had a suggestion. “Don’t make him play T20 cricket. Get him to play Test matches. Harden him like that,” test cricketer, Madan Lal told Sports Tak. “As a pacer, I say that he is a very good bowler but you have to make him a bowler. Give him a chance in Test cricket where he can bowl 10-15 overs and learn the craft of getting wickets.”
India won the series 2-1 despite the loss, having beaten England in the first and second T20s earlier.
Umran made his debut in Dublin, Ireland, in June. His third match was at Nottingham.
In the series, India used youngsters like Umran, Avesh Khan and Ravi Bishnoi, which gave the senior players time to rest. However, the 17-run loss was seen as serious tension by the cricket lovers as it broke India’s winning streak.
However, captain Rohit Sharma defended Umran and the decision of giving youngsters a chance. He said the idea was to see “if they can bowl four overs”.
“We were clear in trying out guys if they can bowl 4 overs. We have things to work on as a group. Hope so. So far things are pretty good. We don’t want to sit on laurels,” Rohit was quoted as saying for losing one of the three matches. “We want to get better every game. Today was a great learning for us to come out and bowl. And to bat as well. Games like this will teach you.”
