One of the fastest rising names in Indian cricket these days is Umran Malik, a fast bowler from Jammu and Kashmir. Sunrisers Hyderabad then decided to retain their net bowler and in the 2022 IPL season, Umran Malik has gone from a rough diamond to a full-fledged diamond and the credit for giving him the right shape goes to Sunrisers bowling coach Dale Steyn. Umran Malik’s fortunes will be strong, which is why he has the opportunity to prepare under the coaching of a speedstar like Dale Steyn. Initially, Umran Malik could only throw the ball with speed, but now he is throwing the ball with proper speed and with this his strength is getting stronger.
Even IPL commentators do not miss the opportunity to praise Umran. Simon Doll said during the Sunrisers match against RCB that a lot of people are eagerly waiting for the Sunrisers Hyderabad match and the reason is Umran Malik. He is making a name for himself among the people because of his speed. In that match, Umran Malik bowled his first ball at a speed of 146 kmph which is the maximum speed of most of the current fast bowlers, that is the warm up speed for Umran Malik. Its average speed is above 150 and it is because of this speed that the IPL is coming alive.
In the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Marco Yansen took three wickets in the second over and started the match. Bowling with the right speed, incredible height, seam, swing accuracy, Yansen will become the best bowler in the world in a few years. But the potential of Umran Malik is not to be underestimated. Former England captain Kevin Pietersen says that many fast bowlers came and went in the world but the bowlers at that time could throw the ball at a speed of 90 miles (145 kmph) but Malik has the highest speed and some rarely reach. Malik could throw the ball continuously with the speed he had.
He falls into the category of Loki Ferguson, and maybe he bowls with more speed than him. Malik previously only knew how to throw the ball with speed and did not maintain his line and length, sometimes he threw excessive bouncers and often his ball was constantly wide due to being out of line. But if the biggest change in the 2022 IPL is seen in him, he can now control his speed properly and his line and length have also improved a lot. Now he has developed a technical understanding of speed and because of this he is now able to control his bowling while maintaining his speed.
Matthew Hayden now compares him to Waqar Yunus, Simon Doll and Harris Rauf. Dale Steyn, sitting in the dugout of Sunrisers, is happy when Umran Malik dismisses a big player. While Umran Malik was bowling on a cement wicket in Jammu and Kashmir, he was spotted by the under-19 selectors and became the fourth Jammu and Kashmir player to play in the IPL due to his quick bowling.
The first cricketer to play for India from Jammu and Kashmir was Pervez Rasool, who played two limited overs matches. It was followed by Mithun Manhas who was born in the province but started his cricket career on behalf of Delhi. Apart from these, Rasik Salam, Abdul Samad and Manzoor Dar were also present. Out of which Rasik Salam and Abdul Samad got a chance to play but Manzoor Dar did not get such a chance. This is not the first time that a fast bowler from Jammu and Kashmir has appeared in Indian cricket. Earlier, in the mid-2000s, the first fast bowler came from Jammu and Kashmir in the form of Abid Nabi. Abid Nabi came into the limelight as the highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy and had some success playing in the Indian Cricket League (ICL). However he could not play in the IPL. If Nabi was a dream come true then Umran Malik is a reality.
One of the lesser known stories of Malik’s early career. At the time, Malik was part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad team as a net bowler. Johnny Bairstow, who was involved in Sunrisers during net practice at the time, was facing him in the nets and had to ask Malik to bowl slower. And when T Natarajan was sidelined due to injury during the IPL in the UAE, the net bowler found a place in the team and as he entered the IPL, he bowled just a few balls in the opening match of his career and then people started paying attention to him.
It was clearly an upper level speed. When Umran Malik came to bowl his third over in the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, a chiron started on the screen in which, a simple question was asked whether Umran Malik is India’s fastest bowler ever. It is also interesting to know what Sunil Gavaskar has to say about Umran Malik. Gavaskar says that you can know about the speed of bowlers only in the modern age, but overall Indian bowlers have not been historically fast.
However, times changed and India had fast bowlers like Jaspreet Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron who could bowl faster or give their ball maximum speed. However Malik is different from them. He can throw a consistently fast ball like Mark Wood. Even the balls that are slow are not really slow. Malik’s slowest ball is 138.6kmph, which is actually the fastest ball of some bowlers.
Malik’s average speed is 145kmph. Which some bowlers actually have maximum speed. In fact, Malik does not throw slow balls. Only 2.8% of its deliveries have speeds below 130kmph. Because it is so fast, some of its slow balls are below 130. But he throws only 6.4% of the ball at speeds between 130 and 139. Malik’s one-over speed analysis remains something like this. The first ball is 151kmph, then 148kmph, then 151kmph, and then 141kmph and 147kmph. That is probably why, according to 77% of cricket fans and cricket veterans, Malik is currently the fastest bowler in India.
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