He is special: Ajay Jadeja praises Umran Malik

Umran Malik was on fire in the series opener where he left his counterparts rattled with his sheer pace. Ever since his debut for Team India, he has proven his worth with every passing game and the kind of maturity that he has shown in recent times inspires the Indian bowling battery by leaps and bounds.

Umran Malik’s biggest weapon is his brutal pace and with an ability to clock almost 145 plus clicks regularly, he is touted as one of India’s budding sensations who can be the game-changer for the Men in Blue if nurtured properly. 

In the first T20I against Sri Lanka, Umran claimed two important scalps where the first one was of Charith Asalanka while the second one was of the all-important Dasun Shanaka who was threatening to take the game away from the Men in Blue. The dismissal of Shanaka came off an absolute belter that flew from his arms at a staggering 155 KPH.

Former Indian captain, Ajay Jadeja was mighty impressed with the youngster’s maturity and the kind of display that he was bringing forth for India. Talking on Cricbuzz, Jadeja said, “He is special, he is different from others, and you need him differently. You need to look after him. His fields have to be different. He will take a while because not many bowlers of that pace bowl so you're not used to seeing where the ball goes. What brings the best out of him. But he showed that in the last over which he bowled. He got hit for a six, then he went further and picked up a wicket. So he will learn as he goes along but it's for the team and the management also to learn how to use him.”

He further added, “There haven't been many bowlers who bowl at this pace. He has got a fabulous action, great rhythm. You need to unleash him. If he is held tight and you make him into a defensive bowler then you are probably losing out on something very special. He might take a little longer to develop into a wicket-taking bowler but he has got something that no other bowler has in India. A lot of players have bounce these days. We see a lot of fast bowlers who are pretty good with the seam and all but very rarely do you find a bowler in India with air pace. I just hope and pray that he is used differently.”

Jadeja also said that the kind of pace that Umran comes in with, it is obvious that he will be bleeding runs but the focus shouldn’t be on the numbers at the moment. These are learning blocks for the youngster and he should be allowed to imbibe every possible chapter that will help him on his way forward.

“You have got to look at this man and not assess him with numbers. If you look at his numbers, they may look ordinary everytime but the 4-5 games that I watched him - in New Zealand and the game today - the accuracy that he has for somebody with that pace is very rare. We've only seen the tip of the iceberg. As the ball gets older, in the longer version he will be more effective. This man will look special. At the moment, he is looking good but he will look even better with the older ball”, concluded Jadeja.