"Umran Malik hasn’t been handled well"- Zaheer Khan questions SRH management for dropping speedster
Former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan feels the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) could have handled the situation around speedster Umran Malik better than they have. The speedster has been out of favor for the Sunrisers in the past few games and that has certainly raised quite a few eyebrows.
Umran Malik played just seven games so far this season, picking up five wickets and has been on the expensive side with an economy rate of 10.35. However, Zaheer feels such speedsters need to be given the backing and confidence for getting the best out of them.
In a media interaction, Zaheer Khan, who is also an IPL Expert for Jio Cinema, explained how poorly the SRH management had handled Umran Malik. He said:
"I think Umran Malik hasn’t been handled well by the franchise the way he should have been utilized by SRH. When you’re talking about a young seamer, you’re also looking at creating that environment and support and confidence is required. Unfortunately, that wasn’t seen from SRH and that’s why he has had a season he had this year."
Zaheer Khan has played a lot with Ishant Sharma and spoke about how great his comeback has been for the Delhi Capitals. He added:
"He (Ishant) is another example of experience being utilized. He is someone who was ready even though he was not around in the early days of IPL."
Zaheer Khan on frequent injuries to fast bowlers
Zaheer Khan has been baffled with the number of long-term injuries that have happened to fast bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, etc. He also shed light on how batters have also faced injuries and feels it may be something to do with how they approach their training and other facets of the game.
On this, Zaheer stated:
"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. I believe something needs to be looked at carefully in terms of how they’re approaching the whole season or their training and rest-to-recovery ratios. It is very difficult to pin-point in one word what’s exactly going wrong."
Injuries to Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul have made massive dents in India's hopes of winning the World Test Championship final next month.