Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Aiden Markram was a fish out of water when asked to comment on express pacer Umran Malik’s repeated exclusion from the team’s playing XI in the ongoing 16th season of the Indian Premier League.
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Having already been eliminated from the race towards the playoffs this year, Malik has been benched yet again as SRH play their last league match against Royal Challengers Bangalore tonight in Hyderabad.
While the think tank has come up with five changes to their team from the previous match, the Jammu and Kashmir pacer has still not been considered worthy of a spot in the bowling department.
Aiden Markram Clueless On Why Umran Malik Is Not Playing IPL 2023 Matches Lately
During an interaction with Star Sports post the Toss, Markram was asked by the legendary Ian Bishop to comment on Malik’s present status in the team.
Perhaps realizing he had no convincing answer to the question, the Proteas batter decided to not beat around the bush after initially fumbling to put words together.
The 28-year-old explicitly implied that he had very little say on the decision, and that it was pretty much a “behind the scenes” thing.
“I’m not too sure to be honest. Obviously he’s a player that’s backed. He’s got a lot of X-Factor. He bowls at 150 km/h, but I don’t really know what’s happening with him behind the scenes, but he’s certainly a player that has a lot of X-Factor.”
Umran Malik’s Performance in IPL 2023
Umran Malik played SRH’s seven of the eight matches during the first half of ongoing IPL season. However, he returned with pretty average numbers across these matches, conceding runs at an economy rate of 10.35 runs per over.
Across these seven innings, he managed to scalp mere five wickets at an average of 35.20, with best bowling figures of 4-0-32-2 against Punjab Kings in Hyderabad.
Just around a week ago, Sunrisers’ head coach Brian Lara had cited Malik’s poor form and the need to provide opportunities to the likes of Kartik Tyagi as the reason for the express pacer missing matches post mid-season.
