Team India star Umran Malik had a bitter-sweet outing in the second T20I of the series against Sri Lanka on Thursday; the speedster picked three wickets in his four overs, but conceded 48 runs as the visitors posted a mammoth score of 206/6 in Pune. India eventually lost the match by 16 runs but following the game, Umran’s dismissals were lauded by the former cricketers, primarily for his sheer pace.
Two of his three dismissals were bowled – at 147kph and 140kph. However, former Pakistan captain Salman Butt believes that Umran needs to add more variations in his arsenal if he has to succeed in international cricket. Talking about the speedster’s outing in the second match of the series, Butt stated that Umran lacks experience and that he is predictable as a young pacer.
“You get better with experience. He conceded so many runs because he lacked experience. He was in good rhythm, his action is neat. His pace was right up there. The problem was that the batter was experienced, more intelligent, and he used Umran’s pace very well. Umran was very predictable, neither did he bowl yorkers nor the slower ones,” said Butt.
“He saw that the batsman was making room for himself, he could have bowled the yorkers outside the off-stump. He didn’t do that too. So, experience matters. And you won’t get experience while sitting outside. You have to let him play. Because he will take wickets and win you the matches from crunch situations.”
India are fielding a new-look side comprising youngsters including Shivam Mavi, Umran Malik, Shubman Gill and Rahul Tripathi.
“Hopefully give them opportunities and just back and support them. I think we’ve got to be patient with a lot of these young kids. If you look at this team, there are a lot of youngsters playing, especially our bowling attack,” Team India head coach Rahul Dravid had said after the game.
“ We all need to be patient with them and we need to be understanding that games like this can happen.”
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