'They thought if Pakistan can do it, why not India': Lahore Qalandars owner on similarities between Umran, Haris Rauf

Lahore Qalandars' owner has drawn a massive similarity between Umran and Haris Rauf, admitting that the franchise has successfully managed to inspire Indian cricket

Umran Malik has become the new cynosure of 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) with his breakneck pace and ability to pick wickets. He has so far picked 10 wickets in seven games at an economy rate of 8.23 and has played a pivotal role in Sunrisers Hyderabad's comeback in IPL 2022. And amid is impressive start to the new season, Pakistan Super League franchise, Lahore Qalandars' owner, Sameen Rana has drawn a massive similarity between the Indian youngster and Pakistan bowling sensation Haris Rauf, admitting that the franchise has successfully managed to inspire Indian cricket with the latter's inspirational journey. (IPL 2022 FULL COVERAGE)

Haris Rauf; Umran Malik

Rauf was picked by the Lahore team in 2018 without any first-class experience and made his first domestic appearance a year later and donned the Pakistan jersey in 2020.

Speaking on paktv.tv , Rana opined that Umran's rise to fame in IPL 2022 was inspired entirely from Haris' journey and that it was Lahore Qalandars who managed to inspire Indian cricket for this.

“I am very happy that Lahore Qalandars have not just impressed Pakistan cricket but also Indian cricket. If you look at Umran Malik's story, you will see that it has been a Haris-Rauf inspired story. Maybe they had followed Haris' story and must have thought if it can happen in Pakistan, then why not in India. Because there are a lot of similarities. Both started from white-ball cricket, are from Jammu and Kashmir, no background in first-class cricket," he said.

Umran, however was part of the Jammu and Kashmir cricket team before he was roped in by SRH in 2021 as replacement for T Natarajan, who was suffering from Covid-19. The then 21-year-old had only played two First-Class games, one T20 and one List A game for his state, but had taken IPL by storm with his pace with leaving even Virat Kohli and former India head coach Ravi Shastri immensely impressed.

“I have never seen that happen in IPL before. And it happened until Haris, who became a success and gave others a new pathway. I hope it doesn't happen to Umran, but we were criticised a lot when Haris was in our team that we killed domestic cricket and affected the sport. But today, he is Pakistan's pride. When he goes abroad and plays for teams like Yorkshire, they call him 'Pakistani superstar'. So we have given cricketers a new pathway and I want to take credit for that,” Rana added.