Former Pakistan great Waqar Younis has revealed the absence of Umran Malik is a blessing for the Pakistan cricket team, given the threat he possesses. Younis, who has served the Pakistan cricket team as the bowling coach multiple times, hailed the Indian pacer as ‘a real talent’.
Umran Malik recently endured a season to remember in the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League as he breathed fire through his pace, which the opposite batters struggled with. He picked up 22 wickets, including a fifer off 14 games he played in IPL 2022 at an average of 20.22. In an interview with A Sports, Younis underlined that sometimes management must take a leap of faith and play such talented players in crunch matches. He believes Indian selectors missed a point by not picking a talented bowler like Umran. He said:
“When you emphasise too much on development, you lose the raw talent of a bowler. If you pick even the great bowlers, very early they are thrown in the deep end and they learn to swim quickly,”
He added: “I’m happy he’s not there because India will play Pakistan. He’s a real talent. We spoke about this in Asia Cup as well because he was not there when Star sports guys were making their team. He was not there in anyone’s team.”
Umran Malik was expected to be a net bowler for the Indian cricket team in Australia for T20 World Cup 2022. However, due to visa issues, he couldn’t fly to Australia. As a result, he is currently playing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Jammu & Kashmir. Malik recently did well against Maharashtra picking 4 wickets for 27 runs. Further, expressing his disappointment with Umran’s exclusion from the Indian squad, Younis said:
“I was really surprised because they don’t think the way we do. We believe if someone has pace, he will do alright. And eventually, you could see that the kids who came into the Pakistan setup when Misbah and I were coaches are now the backbone of the bowling.”
