On Umran Malik's Maiden India Call-Up, Omar Abdullah Tweets This

Umran Malik, the pace sensation from Jammu and Kashmir, has earned his maiden India call-up for the five-match T20 International (T20I) series against South Africa. His exploits during the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season prompted several calls for him to be included in the national team. After his selection, National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah congratulated the 22-year-old and said that he will follow the series against South Africa "very keenly". "Well done Umran Malik. We will be watching the forthcoming T20 series against the Proteas very keenly," Omar Abdullah tweeted.

Well done Umran Malik. We will be watching the forthcoming T20 series against the Proteas very keenly. https://t.co/KdoAfflAdZ

Earlier, political leaders like Congress' Shashi Tharoor and P Chidambaram had urged for his selection for India.

Umran Malik lit the IPL up with his ability to consistently bowl at speeds above 150 kmph.

But it's not just his speed that has been impressive, but also the discipline with which he has bowled to trouble batters.

Malik has so far picked 21 wickets in 13 matches. He also claimed his maiden IPL five-wicket haul in SunRisers Hyderabad's match against Gujarat Titans.

Apart from Umran, even left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh got his maiden India call-up for the series against South Africa. Kl Rahul is set to captain the side, with the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah rested.

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The five-match series will begin on June 9 in Delhi.

India squad for T20I series vs South Africa: KL Rahul (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(vc) (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi