Speed is one of cricket’s most powerful weapons, and keeping it waiting can be counterproductive.
Speed is one of cricket’s most powerful weapons, and keeping it waiting can be counterproductive.
So, what do we do about Umran Malik?
The answer to this would be the difference between being a top-class bowler for India and dying prematurely. Umran is a rare talent. He is 22 years old, has good action and is able to bowl regularly at 150 kmph. He, as Kane Williamson, their captain at Sunrisers Hyderabad has called, “special”.
The way he has been breaking wickets – dismissing Shreyas Iyer has been one of the highlights of the IPL – has put Umran at the forefront of new options for the national team.
Shreyas headed first towards the line of the ball, then swiftly in the opposite direction, while the yorker kept his way and hit the stumps. A score of 140 for Indian fast bowlers is not uncommon, but a score of 150 is something else, with batsmen at risk of walking on the square leg umpire’s toes.
nurturing talent
Now comes the difficult part for Umran and India. How do we nurture this talent and ensure that he has a long and productive career? Who will be whispering in his ear, “You’re a fast bowler, keep bowling fast,” especially on those days when Mishit hits a six and the edges are dropped in the slips?
Fast bowling is a long and lonely job, a strong mind as body and capable of overcoming bad days reassuring the self-confidence that the good guys are around the corner. Fast bowlers need to bleed quickly, even if they are not a finished product yet. Speed is one of cricket’s most powerful weapons, and keeping Umran in wait can be counterproductive.
Umran has been disastrous, but at times costly. Wicket-to-wicket he may be fatal, but he has bowled the ball in the IPL. Accuracy at this stage should not come at the expense of speed. His bowling coach at Sunrisers, the great Dale Steyn, has his finger on it for this reason: Anyone can bowl at a speed of 135 kmph. Men of 150 kmph are included in the elite class. Umran needs a sensible coach and captain to perform at his best.
In the upper class of cricket, captains are not used to having so much speed at their disposal, they would be tempted to throw the ball every time they hit the ball. It can reduce the length of a career that by this end of time the scale looks full of promise and suggests longevity.
magic pacing
Umran will have to learn to pace himself more than 15 or more overs in a full day’s play, which is more difficult in the IPL than flat four overs at full speed, sometimes in two spells. At the highest level, speed, stamina, variety all come together to make a fast bowler. The more he plays, the better Umran will understand his body, and the sharper his bowling sense will be.
He is an exciting prospect, and may have already booked his ticket for the short tour of England in July, which takes place after the T20 home series against South Africa. With such obvious talent, sometimes it’s worth taking a chance. The white-ball series after the Test is a good training ground for the World T20 in Australia in October.
I come from a generation that prayed for India to shed tears, and kept reading articles in the newspapers asking the question ‘why can’t we produce fast bowlers?’. We have fast bowlers right now, yet it feels unrealistic to see an Indian with Umran’s pace.
It is to the credit of Sunrisers that they retained Umran in the auction, thus giving confidence to the youngster and enabling him to train under Steyn. IPL teams have their own talent scouts and have developed a network of contacts across the globe so that they have accurate information about the background of the kind of player they are looking for.
need for youth academies
The next step for many teams is to establish a youth academy. Rajasthan Royals, the first IPL team to do so, has since been joined by CSK, Mumbai Indians and KKR with varying degrees of focus, but it may be time for the Board of Control for Cricket in India to focus on all IPL teams. Is. their own youth program.
Through scholarship and specific agenda, these academies can serve areas that don’t get a lot of attention, such as the North East. IPL can be a force for good.
However, raw talent can still slip through the net. Umran Malik, who did not play with a cricket ball until the age of 17 – it was hard to imagine in India’s traditional cricket centers – initially stated that he could not appear for the Jammu and Kashmir Under-19 trials because He didn’t play district level! Indian cricket can be shockingly bureaucratic and silly at times.
But Umran is here, and almost ready. The rest is training on the job.