Umran Malik will be a ‘great bowler’ for India, says Chaminda Vaas

Umran Malik ‘fan club.’ On Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s pace great Chaminda Vaas remarked that the tearaway rookie Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer from Jammu - who won his 13th consecutive fastest delivery award in IPL-2022 when he clocked 154.8 kmph on Tuesday night - will become a “great bowler” for India, and “will go a long way.” With 21 wickets, Umran is the fourth highest wicket-taker in the tournament, with best figures of five for 25. “I think he (Umran) is getting better day by day and I saw him playing in the last IPL as well. He is bowling (with pace) consistently and accuracy is important when it comes to T20 cricket.

And he will be a great bowler for India. He will be there with (Jasprit) Bumrah (as a bowling pair), I guess, if India gives him a chance. He will go a long way,” Vaas, in the city to coach kids at the Mumbai Cricket Club, run by coach Jwala Singh, said.

Having taken 355 wickets in 111 Tests and 400 wickets in 322 ODIs with his penetrative left-arm pace bowling, and later taken over as the bowling coach of Sri Lanka, Vaas has a fair idea about quality fast bowling. Vaas attributed the emergence of not just Umran, but a clutch of talented young pacers - Arshdeep Singh, Umran, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Chaudhary, Mohsin Khan to name a few - in this IPL and in the previous editions of the league to India’s solid good first-class cricket structure. “India has a good first-class structure and most of the first-class teams are producing lots of (good) cricketers and even Indian cricket has a plan going forward.