The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), under the captaincy of Pat Cummins, finished as the runners-up in the recent edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, after losing to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) during the final of the tournament at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Most of their bowlers, especially did a great job throughout the tournament, but with the mega auction awaiting before the 2025 season, the franchise is looking forward to starting fresh for the 18th edition of the event.
The recent reports have claimed that the SRH team management is looking forward to releasing their expressive fast bowler, Umran Malik who featured in only one game during the recent season, where he bowled only one bowler and conceded 15 runs, without any success.
The list of recent injuries hasn’t been quite satisfactory for Malik too, who showed so much promise at the start of his IPL career, with thunderbolt speed and incredible talent of making it quite difficult for the batters to score runs against him.
Many franchises show interest in SRH pacer Umran Malik
SRH bought the right-arm fast bowler in 2022 for a whopping price of INR 4 crore, as he has collected 29 wickets in 26 IPL games at an average of under 27 and an economy rate of 9.40, with a strike rate of 17.
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The breakthrough season for the Jammu and Kashmir-born was in 2022, when he picked up 22 wickets in 14 games, at an average of just over 20, at an economy of a little over nine, and a strike rate of under 14. With his colorful performances, he also earned the opportunity to represent the Indian team.
However, since then, the regular injuries have made it quite tough for him. The SRH team also seems to have taken their eyes off the bowler. The former Indian bowling coach Paras Mhambrey suggested that Malik would need some guidance and proper structure around him to come back with those sorts of spicy performances.
‘We need to guide him. He needs to play for a state which has the proper structure. Unfortunately, he is playing for a state where there is no proper structure.’ Mhambrey expressed this during a recent interview with Sportstar. ‘Playing for a state with a proper structure and playing a lot of cricket will help him. We need someone to make that call for him and make sure that he plays for a state where he plays a lot of cricket.’
The veteran also believes that the 24-year-old still has a lot to offer with his consistent pacer of 140, as the only thing he needs at the moment is proper support.
‘He has the potential, a quick guy who can bowl in the mid-140s. consistently, but someone to guide him at this stage and say, okay, fine, just play cricket and how do we take this, take his game forward.’ Paras remarked.
It would be surprising to see SRH parting ways with young and special talent like Umran Malik, who could be the future of the ‘Orange Amry’, especially with 34-year-old Bhuvneshwar Kumar not showing the same intensity with the ball. He grabbed only 11 wickets in 16 games at an economy of nearly 10 in IPL 2024.
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Especially in the middle overs, when protections are allowed outside the 30-yard circle, Umran’s short ball with that speed could be a huge weapon for his team, as he could make a great partnership with left-arm pacer T Natarajan in the future.
With SRH set to leave out the ‘Jammu Express’, many other franchises like Punjab Kings or Gujrat Titans or others could aim for him during the IPL 2025 mega auction.
