Veteran Australia pacer Brett Lee has expressed his displeasure with Sunrisers Hyderabad’s handling of Umran Malik in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. Umran, who came into the limelight last season for his express pace, has not been very effective with the ball in IPL 2023 so far and claimed just 5 wickets in as many matches. The tearaway pacer has also been leaking runs at an economy rate of 10.
The Jammu and Kashmir pace was the highest wicket-taker for SRH last season with 22 scalps under his kitty and was also named the Emerging Player.
SRH are currently placed at the bottom half of the points table and have not been able to put out collective efforts on the field. They looked like a fearsome fast bowling unit on the papers but have failed to showcase that on the field.
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Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar are the stand-out pacers for SRH with 7 scalps each in their kitties. However, the economy rate has been a big concern for them in the fast-bowling department, apart from Bhuvneshwar Kumar (7.54), the other SRH pacers have an economy rate of over 9.5.
Replying to News18 Cricketnext query in a selected media interaction, Brett Lee criticised Sunrisers Hyderabad for not using their bowlers at the right position.
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The legendary Aussie paceman suggested that the Orange Army should use Umran in the powerplay as he has the potential to get some early wickets with his express pace.
“You’ve mentioned Umran Malik. I think the thing about Sunrisers Hyderabad is that I don’t think they have used their bowlers in the right positions so I would love to see Umran Malik in the powerplay. He has bowled once in a powerplay this season and he went for 20-odd runs but that was a one-off case. It’s almost like saying to a batsman that you have to bat but if you get a duck you never going to bat ever again. You need to have faith and you need to have a commitment in these guys coming through. I would always give the fast bowler in IPL a brand new ball and give him the correct field, giving him the confidence to run and bowl the old ball,” JioCinema IPL expert Lee replied to the News18 CricketNext query.
Interestingly, Umran has bowled just 16 overs in 6 matches which meant that captain Aiden Markam is not showing big faith in him as he has not even bowled the full quota of his overs.
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Lee, who himself was known for his express pace, pointed out that Umran usually came to bowl after the powerplay which is not ideal for him as the batters got set in the middle with the ball getting old.
“At the moment, SRH are using other bowlers early and using someone like Umran Malik in an over in the 8th or 9th over. So generally the batsmen are settled with 70/0 or 80/0 on the board and when Umran Malik bowling with an old ball with the batsmen set,” Lee added.
Umran was also dropped from the SRH XI for the Mumbai Indians clash which might have also dented his confidence a bit.
Lee suggested that SRH should give Umran a chance to bowl in the powerplay as many batters would not want to face in the first over with the new ball.
“My advice would be to get him back in the team, give him a couple of matches with the new ball and if he missed there then he misses out. I am promising you that if gets the confidence of the skipper then there is a good chance that he would succeed because he is bowling with the new ball. A lot of batsmen out there if you ask them whether they would rather face Malik in the 9th over or the first over, I could promise you they would rather face him when the ball is old,” Lee concluded.
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