There is something brutal and captivating about a fast bowler charging to the crease with boundless energy and sending the batters ducking for cover. On December 7, 2022, we saw a glimpse of that in an ODI played between India and Bangladesh. Umran Malik, the Indian pacer, hit the experienced Shakib Al Hasan twice on the helmet. In the very next over, from round the wicket, Umran created the inward angle and castled Najmul Shanto. Both Shakib and Shanto were rooted on the back foot as they feared Umran’s sheer pace through the air. The way Umran’s teammates mobbed him after watching the stumps go cartwheeling told a story.
Barring a few names – Mohammad Nissar, perhaps a young TA Sekar, peak Javagal Srinath, an erratic Varun Aaron or Jasprit Bumrah at his absolute best – India isn’t a land known for fast bowling. So, over the last couple of years, ever since Umran made his IPL debut against Kolkata Knight Riders, thousands of words have been penned about how he could be the next big thing in Indian cricket. But after playing 25 IPL games, nine ODIs and eight T20Is, it can be said with some conviction that he is still an apprentice and needs a bit of polishing. So, does Umran need to upgrade his bowling by adding a skill or two? What is his best format? Does he have a role to play in the upcoming 50-over World Cup? There are enough questions to be answered.
First, let’s try to gauge Umran’s key strength. If you revisit the short spell he bowled to Shanto and Shakib in Bangladesh, it is quite evident that he is more of a skiddy fast bowler. The ball skids through and due to his sheer pace through the air, he could very well beat the batter’s defence or an attempted shot. Even during the IPL 2022, when he bagged 22 wickets, it was his pace through the air that stood out. His approach towards the crease is perhaps similar to the great Waqar Younis. Although as Simon Feros, the biomechanist, rightly pointed out, Umran “gets into an ultra side-on position at back-foot landing and adopts a larger backward lean.”
Now, the great Waqar was also more of a skiddy fast bowler, who at his peak employed old-ball swing at high pace to devastating effect. Swing with the old ball is one of the ways that could help Umran pass the stressful test of bowling in the slog overs in ODIs. Whether Umran has the ability to constantly get swing with the old ball is still unknown. But the bigger picture that emerges here is with two white balls being used in modern day ODIs, it is difficult to envisage a fast bowler cracking the code of getting appreciable swing with the old ball in that format.
India perhaps know that without much reverse swing on offer, Umran’s style of bowling isn’t exactly suited to bowling in the slog. So, barring the occasional ODI, Umran has been mostly introduced into the attack at the back-end of the first powerplay or just after the powerplay, and given short spells through the middle overs. It is true that the middle-overs-enforcer is a safe bet for Umran.
Just that the modern-day prototype of an enforcer in the middle overs in the 50-over format generally demands hit-the-deck skills. In the 2019 World Cup, Liam Plunkett did that job for England effectively by employing hit-the-deck skills and cross-seam. From India’s perspective, Mohammed Shami could take over the role of being the enforcer in the middle overs.
Umran is also the kind of bowler who could go for plenty in one game and then end up with three or four wickets in the very next one. His economy rates of 6.41, 10.49 and 9.33 in ODIs, T20Is and IPL also indicate that Umran could be a double-edged sword in limited overs.
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So, if selected, the onus would be on the India captain to use Umran as a wicket-taker and accept that in the odd game, he could turn out to be expensive. It also has to be observed that even if Umran gets selected in the squad, he might have to warm the bench in most of the games. The likes of Mohammed Siraj, Shami and Bumrah would in all likelihood be India’s frontline pace bowlers.
There is another pertinent question to answer, and that is Umran’s long-term future. There is no doubt that his extra pace could be precious for the Indian set-up. At the same time, he also perhaps needs the right guidance to carve out a successful path. The one skill that seems to be missing in his armour is moving the ball in the air. Even the fastest ball he has ever bowled – 157 km/h in the IPL 2022 – was clobbered to the boundary boards by Rovman Powell, as it came out gun-barrel straight. Sometimes, at the highest level, just raw pace probably isn’t enough. Umran found a hint of conventional swing in a T20I series against Ireland last year. Other than that short spell, it is hard to recollect him getting consistent movement in the air.
In that backdrop, India could try out Umran with the new ball in the ongoing ODI series against the West Indies. Of course, Umran wouldn’t be expected to take new-ball duties in the World Cup. But with the future in mind, there is no harm in giving an opportunity to Umran to bowl with the new white Kookaburra ball.
Another point to dwell upon is whether he needs to have slightly different gears as a fast bowler. A thoroughbred fast bowler seems to know when and against whom he needs to go up a gear and bowl at express pace, and when to reduce a bit of pace and look for movement in the air or off the deck. Umran’s bowling coach at Sunrisers Hyderabad – Dale Steyn – was one such great fast bowler. If you do a thorough YouTube search to unearth more information about Steyn’s bowling, it could be seen that on occasions, he bowled in the 85-87mph range and looked for swing in the air. And at other times, he indulged in a bumper barrage, bowling at 90mph.
Or just think of his countryman, Allan Donald. At the Wanderers, against England, in 1999-00, he bowled arguably his finest spell of swing bowling. The best ball he bowled in that spell was to Michael Atherton, with the boomerang-bending inswinger crashing into the stumps. While watching old clips from that match, it is crystal clear that he had reduced his pace a tad as he was trying to find swing in the air and movement off the pitch. There were other times when Donald also ramped up his pace – His spell to Atherton at Trent Bridge, and the Waughs at SCG are prime examples.
There are many such examples, which ram home the point that a good fast bowler seems to have slightly different gears, and uses them according to the match situation. All these pointers could help Umran to find a place in the India Test squad in the near future.
Umran definitely has loads of self-belief. A couple of years ago, when this writer had interviewed him, Umran had said this about bowling to David Warner and Manish Pandey at SRH’s nets. “They were saying, ‘Don’t bowl that fast.’ But I had come to bowl fast, so I would bowl fast.”
In Umran, India have a fast bowler who has the raw materials to become the X-factor. Just that those rough edges have to be smoothened for him to scale higher peaks.
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