Irfan Pathan says not Umran Malik and this bowler is a future star of India

Umran Malik has become a household name after his brilliant stint with Hyderabad in the Indian T20 League 2022. Irfan Pathan has been instrumental in the development of Umran Malik as a bowler. He improved leaps and bounds under Irfan’s guidance, during his tenure as a coach-cum-player in with the Jammu and Kashmir side. It is expected that Irfan will back a bowler who has developed under his guidance but according to the former left-arm medium-pacer, Arshdeep Singh might be playing all the five matches against South Africa.

Irfan complimented Arsdeep even keeping in mind the fact that Umran got more wickets than Punjab’s bowler. He also accepted that Umran’s pace is an X-factor as a death bowler but stated the fact that Arshdeep managed to keep hard-hitters like MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya quiet in the death-overs.

“If you see the IPL numbers in terms of the wickets, the matches are more and the wickets are less, still the selectors backed him and picked him in the squad. There is a reason for that, he keeps the best batters quiet, when he bowls at the death, he keeps Dhoni, Hardik Pandya quiet, bowls consistent yorkers against the set batters,” Irfan Pathan told India Today.

Arshdeep Singh was able to pick up only 10 wickets in his 14 matches during the tournament. But economy-wise he was the second-best in the death overs in the tournament just behind Jasprit Bumrah. Arshdeep conceded 7.58 runs in the tournament in the death phase while picking up 4 wickets. Irfan also said that Arshdeep being a left-arm pacer might get the precedence as it is a rare occurrence in India at present.

“You picked a left-arm bowler in your squad based on some thinking, because the left is always right. So, play him all the matches and he is a bowler who raises his hand for his team whenever there is a difficult situation, that he will bowl the yorkers and try to pick up wickets,”- stated Irfan Pathan