I think the chance of Umran Malik cementing his position in the national squad is pretty high at the moment. He has been already selected for the T20 between SA which will be played in India. I feel if he performs well in the T20 squad then he might also get into the ODI squad which basically will cement his position. Another advantage for him to getting a permanent position in the Indian squad is that he is a fast pacer and not a medium pacer.
One of his deliveries in the IPL was clocked at 157 kmph. I believe that this is the fastest an Indian has ever bowled in any format of cricket. He is just 22 years old and in case he can cement his place in the Indian team, then I am sure that he will go a long way. But with all the bowlers who bowls at such a pace, injury should be a concern. Just one major injury and his career will be gone. I have seen this so many times, and international cricket lost a lot of promising express pace bowlers due to injury. Jofra Archer is the latest one. I actually think he has decent enough skill with the best that he can generate. but it will be wrong to hype him up too much because we have seen a lot of youngsters getting hyped up too much and not performing as he was expected later. and he has to maintain fitness really well because it is really easy for fast bowlers to get injured.
I believe that he’ll secure his place under Dravid (Indian coach) mentoring, and if he continues to follow Dravid’s instructions then there’s a huge possibility that he’ll develop into one of the best bowlers we have seen till date. However he should be told to ignore the expectations and just focus on his natural game, because the weight of expectations can harm his game and lastly I hope that team India will carefully groom him and help him deal with this newfound stardom.
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