Srinagar: Former India cricketer and J&K mentor Irfan Pathan has lashed out at Sunrisers Hyderabad for mishandling pacer Umran Malik during ongoing IPL 2023 season.
The fastest ever pacer from India, Umran Malik was a revelation during IPL 2022. With the express pace at his disposal, the 24-year-old pacer impressed all. All the cricket great’s Malik as an asset for India.
Umran went on to make his international debuts in the T20I and ODI formats.
However, the IPL 2023 has not been kind to Umran in the SunRisers Hyderabad ranks. This year Umran has played just seven games, taking five wickets at an economy of 10.35 per over. He last played a game for SRH on April 29 and is yet to play a game this month.
The mismanagement and the way Umran has been treated by Hyderabad side has even baffled former India star Irfan Pathan, who was earlier associated with the Jammu and Kashmir team as mentor cum player.
“League’s fastest bowler sitting out baffles me. Umran Malik wasn’t handled well by his team,” Irfan Pathan tweeted.
Even Brett Lee in a recent interaction organised by Jio Cinema, broadcasters of the IPL, suggested SRH to use him properly.
“You’ve mentioned Umran Malik. I think the thing about Sunrisers Hyderabad is that I don’t think they have used their bowlers in the right positions so I would love to see Umran Malik in the powerplay. He has bowled once in a powerplay this season and he went for 20-odd runs but that was a one-off case. It’s almost like saying to a batsman that you have to bat but if you get a duck you never going to bat ever again. You need to have faith and you need to have a commitment in these guys coming through. I would always give the fast bowler in IPL a brand new ball and give him the correct field, giving him the confidence to run and bowl the old ball,” he said