Srinagar: After impressing everyone with his raw speed, Umran Malik, now known as J&K Express, has received his maiden call to the national side for the squad which is scheduled to play five T20s against South Africa next month.
Malik, a net bowler for Sunrisers Hyderabad team in IPL 2021, was included in the team after their bowler T Natrajan got injured.
Though a bit expensive, Malik impressed everyone with his speed and later was chosen as the national team’s net bowler for the T20 World Cup.
In his very first IPL match he bowled the fastest ball of the match and in his second match he bowled the fastest ball of the IPL season 2021.
This year he was retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad and in 13 matches he took 21 wickets and also bowled the fastest ball of the season @157 KPH.
Umran Malik, a resident of Gujjar Nagar Jammu, is the fourth from Jammu and Kashmir to play in IPL after Parvaiz Rasool, Rasikh Salam and Abdul Samad.
Soon after he got the national call, people from different areas started thronging to Malik’s residence in Gujjar Nagar to congratulate his family.
His father Abdul Rasheed Malik, who sells vegetables in the locality, thanked everyone for giving love and support to his son.
“I have provided him everything, whatever he has asked for in order to play cricket. He used to spend most of his time in playing cricket,” the proud father told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
“Getting a call to play for the Indian team was the dream of my son but the real test and journey will start now for him,” he said.
Many international players have heaped praises on Malik for bowling consistently over 150 KPH and have hoped that he will perform well.
Malik is the second player from J&K to become part of the national team after Parvaiz Rasool.
