Umran Malik hasnt been handled well: Zaheer Khan expresses disappointment on speedsters omission from SRH
Eyebrows were raised when Sunrisers Hyderabad decided to leave out Umran Malik from the playing XI for their last few games. Former India pacer Zaheer Khan was one of those left surprised. In a media interaction on Thursday, Zaheer, who is also an IPL expert for Jio Cinema, said that the franchise did a poor job of managing the 23-year-old Umran. I felt Umran Malik has not been handled well by the franchise, (in) the way he should have been handled, (in) the way his services should have been utilised by SRH. That's something which was evident, he said. After bagging the Emerging Player of the Tournament in 2022, the bowler from Jammu & Kashmir earned his T20I and ODI debuts for India. He also won over cricketing greats with his searing pace in the opportunities he received. Umran, however, has only participated in seven games in IPL 2023, taking five wickets at a 10.35 economy rate, and hasn't played yet this month. The former seamer opined that Umran wasn't getting proper supervision at SRH. "When you are talking about a young seamer, you are also looking at creating that environment and support. And, that guidance is required. Unfortunately that was not seen by SRH. That's why he's had a season like this," he added. Frequent injuries to fast bowlers perplexing The India great also spoke about the frequency of long-term injuries that have occurred to fast bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna. Zaheer said that he was perplexed. Khan spoke about the fact that batters have experienced injuries and suggested that their approach to training and other aspects of the game may be to blame. "I am equally puzzled on this (bowlers getting injured). Also there are some batters who have had some serious injuries. That is beyond my understanding and it has to do with a combination for sure, he said. I believe something needs to be looked at carefully in terms of how theyre approaching the whole season or their training to rest and recovery ratio. It is very difficult to pin-point in one word whats exactly going wrong," he added. Managing workload ahead of WTC final After finishing IPL 2023, Rohit Sharma and Co will turn their attention to the World Test Championship final, which will begin on June 7 at the Oval in London, followed by the ODI World Cup later in the year. Speaking about the workload management of the players (especially bowlers), Zaheer reckoned in order to better prepare the bowlers for the lengthy periods of bowling in Test matches, their workload should be intensified immediately. As a bowler, the more you bowl, the better it is for you. That's the way I have always looked at it. When you are looking at the workload, I always believe that when you are talking about IPL as a tournament and T20 as a format, your high-intensity overs are less," he said. "It's not a very high workload in terms of the match overs, so you can always manage yourself. In fact, when you are looking at a Test match final, you are talking about upping this workload as you will be bowling 18-20 overs on a Test match day, which is going to be at high intensity. "From the workload management point of view, for a bowler, it's about getting yourself ready to spend that day on the field for 90 overs and then coming back again and doing it the next day if required. So, that's the kind of preparation required and workload should be upped right now rather than being decreased," he added.
Friday, May 19, 2023 at 3:59 am