Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has questioned Umran Malik’s readiness for the international level and has highlighted that he is still a ‘work in progress’ cricketer at the moment. Umran made his India debut in the recently concluded T20I series against Ireland. He turned out to be expensive in both the T20I matches in the series.
Umran Malik defended 16 runs off the last over in the second T20I. However, overall, he finished the match with bowling figures of 1/42 conceding runs a an economy rate of 10.5. India managed to win the second T20I by four runs, and seal the two-match series 2-0.
In a video on his Youtube channel, Aakash Chopra spoke about India’s bowling performance in the second T20I. He stated that Umran Malik has the pace, but at the International level, the batters aren’t afraid of it. Aakash said,
“How ready is Umran is a question. You went with Umran Malik for the last over. Umran Malik has the pace but no one is scared of 140-145 at this level. You still feel that you can scare away people in the IPL but that does not happen here.”
Raw emotions on debut to keeping calm in the thrilling last-over win against Ireland! 👍 👍 #TeamIndia
Umran Malik says it all after the second #IREvIND T20I in Dublin. 👏 👏 – By @RajalArora pic.twitter.com/Rsja5Lgb2M
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 29, 2022
It will take time: Aakash Chopra on Umran Malik’s progress
Umran Malik went for a couple of boundaries, early in the final over. He also overstepped on the second delivery of the over. However, the youngster hold his nerves and managed to seal the match for India.
Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra pointed out that in the final over, the youngster bowled good-length deliveries. He stated that without variations, those delivery become ‘bad-length balls. Aakash further expressed that Umran Malik is a ‘work in progress’ player. He said,
“I am very happy for Umran Malik but the truth is that he is a work in progress. He was bowling length in the last over, when you do that without pace variation, all those good-length balls are actually bad-length balls. A good batter would have hit fours and sixes. So it will take time.”
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