Umran Malik’s role is to run in and express himself: Tom Moody

Sunrisers Hyderabad express pacer Umran Malik has been getting a lot of attention, after bowling some fiery spells in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). The speedster has been regularly bagging award for bowling fastest delivery in most of the matches representing the Orange Army.

Meanwhile, SRH head coach has lauded the young Jammu and Kashmir pacer and stated that he has been given the license “to run in and express himself” with ball in hand. The 22-year old recently bowled the fastest delivery in IPL history with the one getting to 153.1 km/hour against the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK). However, the pacer has leaked as many as 173 runs in five matches and has scalped five wickets at an economy of 9.61.

There is going to be a higher economy: Moody on Umran

However, Tom Moody is not worried much about his economy and expects him to go for runs. But he is also happy that Umran Malik is learning as he is playing more matches. It was visible from the way he nailed a perfect yorker to dismiss KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer. “There is going to be a higher economy. At the end of the day, when you are bowling 150 kph in this format, you don’t expect you are not going to go for runs. He goes for a lot of runs behind the wicket. But it’s not like he is getting smashed down the ground or through the covers,” head coach Moody said during the post-match conference after his SRH won by seven wickets against Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday. We accept he is going to go for runs, because of the nature of how he bowls but what we want to see from him is the return in terms of wickets.

“He (Umran) is clearly still at the beginning of his journey. He is learning every single day and having the likes of Dale Steyn around him is an enormous boost for him because he is learning so much on the go,” Moody added.

To note, the 20-year old was retained by the Orange Army ahead of the IPL mega auction for a huge price of INR four crore. The right-arm pacer was quite economical against KKR, giving away just 27 runs from his quota of four overs with two wickets.