One of the finds of IPL 2022, Umran Malik has played just seven games in the ongoing edition. His last game for SRH in IPL 2023 was on April 29 against Delhi Capitals.
New Delhi: All is not well at Sunrisers Hyderabad. Aiden Markram’s comments on Umran Malik’s omission from the Royal Challengers Bangalore game on Thursday has sparked speculations that there might be too many cooks in the SRH kitchen and nobody knows who is the leader of the pack.
One of the finds of IPL 2022, Umran got just seven games in the ongoing edition and took just five wickets. The Jammu and Kashmir pacer last featured in a SRH playing XI was against Delhi Capitals on April 29.
On being asked about Umran’s exclusion during the coin toss against RCB, SRH skipper Markram said he has no idea what’s is going on with Umran behind the scenes. “Not too sure to be honest. Certainly he’s a player with the X factor, bowls at 150kph, but I don’t really what’s about behind the scenes but he has a lot of X factor,” the South African had said.
Post that comment, several former cricketers raised their concerns on how the young pacer is being handled at the franchise. Meanwhile, former SRH coach Tom Moody felt Markram do not have much say on the selection and there is something at the franchise which isn’t ideal.
“That implies he has very little say on selection. He may have an opinion on Umran Malik the cricketer and what he probably feels his season should’ve been like with regards to opportunities to play,” Moody told ESPNCricinfo.
For any team to succeed at the top level, the captain and the coach need to be on the same page and Moody believes that isn’t the case at SRH. “He is indicating that he (Umran) should be playing and he is probably unfairly left out a number of games ago now.
“That’s not ideal. You need your captain and coach on the same page. In some franchises, it is a very simple process, where the captain, coach and maybe someone in cricket operations or any other senior player will come up with what they feel the best team,” added the Australian.
“And there’s other teams where there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. I think it applies in the situation that we are talking about Sunrisers. There is clearly a lot of cooks in the kitchen and we don’t know who the leader is. Who has got the tallest chef’s hat.”
Notably, SRH have legendary figures like Brian Lara, Dale Steyn and Muttiah Muralitharan in their support staff. Meanwhile, Moody is the only one to talk about Umran. Former India pacers Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan too believed that Umran isn’t being used properly in IPL 2023.
“Umran Malik has not been handled well I felt by the franchise, (in) the way he should have been handled by the franchise, (in) the way his services should have been utilised by SRH. That’s something which was evident,” Zaheer told NDTV.
“When you are talking about a young seamer, you are also looking at creating that environment and support. And, that guidance is required. Unfortunately that was not seen by SRH. That’s why, he’s had a season like this.”
“League’s fastest bowler sitting out baffles me. Umran Malik wasn’t handled well by his team,” Pathan, a former India all-rounder tweeted.
