Former Indian left-arm medium-pacer, Irfan Pathan has praised Sunrisers Hyderabad’s young right-arm fast bowler, Umran Malik, and said that he reminds him of Pakistan’s legendary bowler, Waqar Younis.
Jammu & Kashmir-born Umran stepped into IPL last year where he bowled 152.95 kph against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Abu Dhabi which turned out to be the fastest delivery of the season.
While speaking on Star Sports, Pathan said, “The first time I saw him bowl was when he was playing for Jammu and Kashmir and I was the mentor. Watching him bowl reminded me of the great Waqar Younis.”
This year, the Kashmir-born pacer was retained by the Sunrisers Hyderabad and on Sunday, Malik jolted Punjab King batters as he became the only third bowler in the IPL history to bowl the 20th over as a maiden and got three wickets in the match.
Waqar Younis is regarded as one of the fastest bowlers and a great exponent of inswinging yorkers. Along with Wasim Akram, Waqar gave nightmares to world-class batters like Brain Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, and many more.
The pacer represented Pakistan for almost one and half decade and during his splendid career, he took 373 wickets in Tests and 416 wickets in ODIs. However, due to the team’s poor performance in the 2003 World Cup, he announced his retirement at the age of 32.
