Will Umran Malik swing Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH’s) fortunes in the IPL?

Sun Raisers, the IPL champions in 2016, and the 2018 finalists, are frequently regarded as underdogs in every IPL season. Despite having a strong team and players, SRH relied heavily on one or two players for the majority of the tournament. SRH fans adored David Warner, the player who won numerous matches for the team on his own. In Warner’s absence, Williamson gave SRH his all. Regrettably, Warner and SRH split up during the massive auction.

SRH got off to a shaky start to the season, losing back-to-back games to the Rajasthan Royals and the Lucknow Super Giants. Both the fans and the management were irritated after back-to-back defeats. The team’s fortunes began to improve after that. They faced the Mighty Chennai Super Kings in the third game. SRH won the match by 8 wickets with 14 balls remaining, thanks to some outstanding batting performances by Tripathi and Abhishek Sharma.

Umran Malik, a 22-year-old bowler who wowed the cricket world with his 152 KMPH ball, stood out in the third match against CSK. He didn’t have great bowling figures, but he showed the audience what he could do. The SRH’s fourth opponent was the Gujarat Titans. The Titans were easily defeated by the Orange, which greatly boosted the team’s confidence. Umran Malik ejected Mattew Wade with a ferocious delivery. 

The next match for SRH was against KKR, a much more powerful opponent.The KKR batters were taken aback by Umran Malik’s blistering pace bowling. Umran Malik’s blistering pace bowling stunned the KKR batters. Malik, who brought everything, rendered KKR toothless. With a superb yorker, he silenced the crowd by clean bowling KKR captain Shreyas Iyer. Against Russel, a Caribbean big man, he landed a slew of powerful bouncers. Malik’s unique ability to swing the ball at 150 km/h has caught the KKR batting unit off guard. He finished with two wickets and an economy rate of slightly less than six. Dale Steyn, the SRH bowling coach, was overjoyed with Umran’s performance and lavished praise on him. When speaking of Umran, Skipper Kane Williamson referred to him as the “special one.”

And his performance against KKR wasn’t even his best, as he turned up the heat against Punjab Kings the following game. Malik bowled a triple-wicket maiden in the penultimate over of Punjab’s innings, which is extremely rare in T20 cricket, and once again drew the attention of the entire world to his talent. It’s incredible that the last over was a maiden with four wickets. He became the fourth bowler to bowl a maiden in the final over of an IPL innings, following Irfan Pathan in 2008, Lasith Malinga in 2009, and Jaydev Unadkat in 2017. 

Malik is still a long way from becoming a super bowler, and he has a long road ahead of him, but with his pace, he has successfully instilled fear in the minds of opponents, which is working very well for him and his team, Sunrisers Hyderabad, right now. Umran Malik appears to be the bowler who will bring the SRH bowling attack back to life. The youngster made a significant contribution to the team. His self-assurance and performance pumped up the SRH team’s adrenaline to new heights. Both the batsmen and the bowlers are doing an excellent job. The squad appears to be in good shape under Williamson’s leadership and is aiming for a successful season similar to 2016 and 2018. SRH is currently in fourth place after four consecutive victories. Will SRH be able to keep this momentum going and make the playoffs with young players, or will the tide turn? Let’s wait and see what happens.