Fast track: 22-year-old Umran Malik from J&K rockets into Team India

Umran Malik, who's rocked the Indian Premier League with his thunderbolts, has earned a much-anticipated call-up to the Indian team for the five-match T20I series against South Africa, which will kick off on June 9 in Delhi. Malik, 22, son of a fruit seller in Jammu, has been generating fearsome pace above 150kmph on a regular basis. His hostile spells for Sunrisers Hyderabad have had batsman hopping, fans cheering and pundits calling for his inclusion in Team India. All-time great Dale Steyn, who's mentoring Malik at SRH, hailed him as a superstar in the making.

Batting for J&K's express fast bowler Umran Malik, former Team India coach Ravi Shastri recently said he should be given a central contract by the Indian cricket board (BCCI) right away and carefully nurtured, while former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh believes he needs to be in the squad for the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year. " Woh apni pace se wahan logon ke sar phad dega (He'll break batsmen's heads there with his pace)," Singh quipped at an event recently. The excitement is understandable. Earlier this week, Malik won his 13th consecutive award for the fastest delivery in the match in IPL 2022 when he clocked 154.8 kmph. He can go faster - he hit a top speed of 157 kmph against Delhi Capitals on May 5. Many believe he could top a recorded speed of 100 miles per hour (160kmph), which so far has been the exclusive preserve of Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee.

Malik first turned heads with his pace last year, when he got to play only a handful of IPL matches. Impressed with what they saw, the SRH think-tank chose to retain him ahead of this year's mega auction. It was a huge gamble on an uncapped youngster, but Malik has more than repaid their