Off late, India has produced a tall and genuine tear-away pacer like Umran Malik. The express fast bowler can clock 150 kph on the speed gun on a regular basis.
So far, Umran has played eight ODIs and T20Is each and picked 24 wickets at an average less than 30 in either format.
Many legendary pacers in world cricket like Dale Steyn, Wasim Akram and Brett Lee have highly praised the promising pacer. However, amid all this, Pakistan pacer Sohail Khan has come up with a bizarre take on Umran.
As per Sohail, bowlers like Umran are very common in Pakistan’s domestic cricket structure.
“I feel this Umran Malik guy is a good bowler. I’ve seen a couple of matches. He runs fast and has kept other things in check as well. But if you think of fast bowlers with speed in excess of over 150-155 kph, I can count some 12-15 players right now who play tape-ball cricket. If you visit the trails organised by Lahore Qalandars, you’ll find many players,” said Sohail.
“Our domestic setup is filled with many bowlers like Umran. When a bowler comes through in our domestic level, he becomes a bonafide bowler. Like Shaheen, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf... these are some of the examples. I can give you many more names,” he added.
Notably, Umran has already bowled the fastest delivery by an Indian pacer clocking 156kph against Sri Lanka. He has been tipped as a threat to former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar’s record (161.3 kph) for the fastest delivery of all time.