IND vs SA Live: India vs South Africa Live Updates: India’s head coach Rahul Dravid poured water on the buzz around Jammu Express Umran Malik. While he was impressed with his speed at the nets, the batting legend admitted that Umran may have to wait a bit longer to make his India debut. Follow South Africa Tour of India with InsideSport.IN.
The 22-year old pacer, who impressed in the IPL by playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad, earned his maiden call-up to the Indian squad for the T20I series against South Africa that begins in Delhi on Thursday.
“Umran is a young boy and he is getting better, improving. The more he is able to play, the better he is going to get. From our perspective, (we are) very happy to have someone like him in the mix. I think I am certainly someone who likes to have that consistency, give people time and let him feel settled in position. It would be interesting to see how much playing time we give to Umran,” Rahul Dravid said at the pre-series press conference.
IND vs SA Live: Umran Malik’s India DEBUT may have to wait little longer, Rahul Dravid says ‘He has lot to learn’
Speaking at the press conference on Tuesday ahead of the upcoming series, Rahul Dravid hailed Umran Malik but also said that he still has a lot to improve.
Umran Malik, who played the full season of IPL for the first time in his career this year, took 22 wickets for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He troubled batsman with his searing pace and clocked the second fastest delivery of the season at 157kmph. He not only finished as the highest-wicket taker for his team, but was also the pacer with the most number of wickets in the season.
IND vs SA Live: Umran Malik’s India DEBUT may have to wait little longer, Rahul Dravid says ‘He has lot to learn’
18-member #TeamIndia squad for the upcoming five-match Paytm T20I home series against South Africa.#INDvSA @Paytm pic.twitter.com/tK90uEcMov
— BCCI (@BCCI) May 22, 2022
His exploits in the IPL earned him a much-deserved call-up to the Indian squad for the T20I series and ever since then expectations were high on whether he would make it to the playing XI straightaway in the first T20 International.
IND vs SA Live: Umran Malik’s India DEBUT may have to wait little longer, Rahul Dravid says ‘He has lot to learn’
In the squad, India already have pacers like the experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar along with Harshal Patel and Avesh Khan who have made their international debut. Alongside Umran Malik, Punjab Kings left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh too earned his maiden call-up for this series.
“We have experience in the form of guys who have been with us before; Harshal, Bhuvi, Avesh. There are certain things we need to look at but it is nice and exciting to have a couple of young guys in the mix as well. It has given an opportunity for us to broaden our pool and see what they can do,” Rahul Dravid said.
The five-match T20I series will begin at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday. The series will be played till 19th June with the final T20I match of the series scheduled to be played at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
IND vs SA Live: Umran Malik’s India DEBUT may have to wait little longer, Rahul Dravid says ‘He has lot to learn’
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