After a disappointing performance in the Asia Cup 2022, Team India is now preparing for the T20 World Cup to be held in Australia from next month. The
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Umran impressed everyone with his pace during the Indian Premier League 2022, clocking over 150 kph regularly.
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Former England pacer Darren Gough has confidently opined that India should take young speedster Umran Malik to Australia for the T20 World Cup later in
thecricketlounge.com
@icyman had it been Pakistan, Australia, England, NZ and perhaps SA they would’ve taken the gamble with this guy and slot him in the World Cup as those teams have done with fast bowlers over the years. McGrath made the point that pace is something you cant teach, very rare to find a youngster of this caliber in world cricket today. If his body can hold up I think he can be the next Mitch Johnson, sad he has to represent India cuz theyre already mismanaging him.
Ah yes NZC the most conservative board in the cricketing world that refuses to call up or play Ben Sears, their biggest pace prospect in quite sometime and a pretty rapid pacer ahead of domestic journeymen who haven't got an ounce of the same potential in Duffy, Tickner and a Southee who's often struggled with the white ball for years will gamble on Umran Malik.
Yes South Africa would have also gambled on Umran Malik surely, oh wait what's that they haven't even selected Marco Jansen (quite rightfully I might add) who is also quick, lanky and has the potential to be one of the best left-armers in world cricket for the T20 WC? Surely not, these aren't the actions of yet another conservative board who prefer to select domestic journeymen batters and bowlers ahead of young domestic guns in all three formats?
England when their entire white ball attack was out of action chose to opt for round two of Topley, Gleeson and Mills rather than throw in a young gun too in their own bilaterals. And they've opted to select Woakes and Wood fresh from injury without any game time rather than throw an inexperienced youngster from their domestic circuit into a high profile tournament.
And yes Australia are surely selecting that bloke that the late Warne used to prop up in Meredith given he has global T20 experience and can bowl 150 kph easily... oh wait what is that you're saying about him not having represented Australia in over a year?
Pakistan are the only side who would have even thought of this gamble and even then the pacers they select for big profile tournaments usually have some domestic experience behind them. Naseem Shah for example has more first-class games compared to Umran Malik in T20s. The main reason why Pakistan would think about it is because they have an entire lost generation of pacers and they're somehow one of the few boards who realise that it is far better to pick an inexperienced young starlet and back them if your experienced alternatives are just a bunch of journeymen who have no potential or limited talent.
Just to illustrate how stupid your proposition is, here are all of the players that various countries have opted to not select who could have been valuable 'gambles' (bear in mind that all of these players have a lot more domestic experience than Malik has)
Riley Meredith
Henry Brookes
Shoriful Islam (whilst Ebadot remains in the team)
Marco Jansen
Gerald Coetzee
Jayden Seales (ffs West Indies opted to recall Cottrell rather than play him)
Coetzee and Brookes haven't even played a token international game yet in comparison and they have decent domestic experience already. India at least played Malik in three T20I games where he was thrashed and they realised he is ineffective in the powerplay, expensive in the death and only really serviceable in the middle overs with his current playing style. But yeah, woe be on India for sadly mismanaging this otherworldly talent who conceded 12.44 rpo in his three T20I games just because he can bowl fast and that causes a bunch of blokes everywhere to believe he must be played at all costs ahead of other more deserving players. And it isn't even like Malik's rotting away on a Kashmiri ground, his first ever first-class game was with the A team (just how many could have such a claim in the last 20 years of global cricket, let alone in India?) and he's also played in the most recent A game for India. Normally it would only be Indian fans bickering online that their favourite player was snubbed but now I see that the haters have started doing it too.
