Former India’s bowling coach Paras Mhambrey reckons Umran Malik needs to play for a state that has the proper structure. Malik plays for Jammu and Kashmir in the domestic circuit but picked four wickets from five matches at an average of 38.50 in the Ranji Trophy 2023-24 season.
Malik is known to bowl consistently above 145 kmph but hasn’t been in the best of forms. The gun pacer played a solitary match for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2024 but could not take a single wicket.
The fast bowler had a breakthrough season in IPL 2022, when he picked up 22 wickets in 14 matches for the Orange Army but has veered off the track since then. Mhambrey reckons more game time will help Malik rise through the ranks.
“I won’t say disappointed, but someone like Umran (Malik). We need to guide him. He needs to play for a state which has the proper structure. Unfortunately, he is playing for a state where there is no proper structure. Playing for a state with a proper structure, playing a lot of cricket will definitely help him. We need someone to make that call for him and make sure that he plays for a state where he plays a lot of cricket. He has the potential, a quick guy who can bowl in the mid-140s. consistently, but someone to guide him at this stage and saying, okay, fine, just play cricket and how do we take this, take his game forward,” Mhambrey told Sportstar.
On the other hand, Mhambrey reckons young fast bowlers like Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti have been over bowled by their respective state teams and they need to manage their workload with guile.
“Others like (Kamlesh) Nagarkoti and (Shivam) Mavi have been lost in all this and maybe overlooked by the associations or over-bowled by the associations. Over-bowled is perhaps the right word, and that’s a little concern because a lot of these guys, when they come into the India team, are really burned by their state teams. So we have to be a little smart with them,” he added.
India has a lot of fast bowlers coming up but they need to be guided on the right track.
