Watching Umran Malik bowl reminded me of the great Waqar Younis: Irfan Pathan

Uncapped Jammu and Kashmir fast bowler Umran Malik, who made his IPL debut last season, has impressed one and all with his ability to clock over 150 kmph on a consistent basis. Sunrisers Hyderabad showed faith in the young pacer and retained him for IPL 2022.  Malik has yet again lived up to the expectations with his sheer pace and has bowled all of the top five fastest deliveries in the ongoing edition.

Meanwhile, veteran India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has come forward and heaped praise on the youngster’s bowling abilities. The cricketer-turned-commentator said that watching Malik bowl at the Jammu and Kashmir camp reminded him of former Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis. The pacer has been one of SRH’s consistent performers in IPL 2022 lately.

When Irfan Pathan got reminded of Waqar Younis watching Umran Malik bowl

“The first time I saw him bowl was when I was playing for Jammu and Kashmir and I was the mentor. Watching him bowl reminded me of the great Waqar Younis,” said Irfan Pathan while speaking on Star Sports ahead of Sunrisers Hyderbad’s game against the Punjab Kings.

The youngster was really impressive with the ball in hand against PBKS as he broke their backbone with an amazing four-wicket haul. He accounted for the likes of wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma, middle-order batter Odean Smith, Rahul Chahar, and Vaibhav Arora , and finished with figures of 4/28. Umran Malik played an instrumental role in restricting the Punjab Kings to a manageable total of 151 despite a blistering knock of 60 off 33  by England all-rounder Liam Livingstone.

Another thing that stood out the most during Malik’s outstanding bowling spell is that he bowled a maiden in the final over and also registered his name in record books. Thus, the 22-year-old became only the fourth bowler in IPL history to bowl a maiden in the 20th over.