'Umran Malik doesn't have ability to swing the ball': Ex-India pacer's 'Dale Steyn' suggestion for off-colour SRH star

In 7 matches in IPL 2023, Umran has picked only five wickets at 35.20. In 4 of those ties, he went for runs over 10 an over and was dropped for 2 games as well.

Umran Malik was the find of IPL 2022, not just for Sunrisers Hyderabad, but even more so for the Indian team. His raw pace and ability to take wickets had left veterans and experts gobsmacked and called for his debut India cap and a chance in the T20 World Cup squad. His tally of 22 wickets in the season, was the second-best by an Indian after Purple Cap winner Yuzvendra Chahal (27), with a strike rate of just 13.4. However, Umran has gone completely off-colour in 2023, looking only a pale shadow of himself.

Umran Malik; Dale Steyn

In seven matches so far, the right-arm fast bowler has picked only five wickets at 35.20. In four of those games, he went for runs over 10 an over and was dropped for two games as well.

In his last match, against Delhi Capitals, Umran was smacked for 22 runs in the only over he bowled. He was severely criticised by both Ravi Shastri and Kevin Pietersen for not taking notes from Delhi's innings and Mitchell Marsh's bowling, who had picked four wickets in the match.

While there have been criticism over SRH's use of Umran and former India pacer RP Singh, IPL expert, Jio Cinema, agrees to it, he feels that it is also the responsibility of a bowler to give that confidence to a captain.

The 2007 World Cup-winning fast bowler opined that the 23-year-old needs to take a leaf out of SRH bowling coach Dale Steyn's career and learn how to swing the ball. RP Singh feels that the day Umran can add swing to his bowling and can dish out slower deliveries and cutters as well, he could become unstoppable.

“Yes one can debate on how SRH have used Umran this season, but even as a bowler you need to give that confidence to the captain that yes you can contribute towards the team. He has speed, and that is a big thing. If he can swing the ball like Dale Steyn...Umran doesn't have that ability to swing the ball. The moment he manages to improve on that, maybe learn to bowl those cutters as well, he will be a different bowler altogether,” he told Hindustan Times.

“When you are bowling at the speed of 150kmph, you become the go-to bowler for the team and captain would then expect you to take wickets in situations or conditions where no other bowler managed to get a breakthrough. And he did that last season, but that hasn't happened this time.”