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“Shoaib Akhtar’s record will be hard to beat”: Shaun Tait believes it will be tough for Umran Malik to break Shoaib Akhtar’s fastest delivery record

Rishikesh Sharma
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Umran Malik has impressed everyone this season with his pace, but Shaun Tait believes it will be tough to break Shoaib Akhtar's record.

Umran Malik has impressed everyone this season with his pace, but Shaun Tait believes it will be tough to break Shoaib Akhtar’s record.

Umran Malik has been a sensation in the Indian Premier League 2022. The speedster from Jammu has impressed everyone this season with his lethal pace and accuracy. Sunrisers Hyderabad retained Umran Malik ahead of the IPL 2022 auction.

Umran Malik has scalped 21 wickets in 13 matches this season at a strike-rate of 13.40. He became the youngest bowler in the Indian Premier League history to scalp more than 20 wickets in a season. He is currently the 4th highest wicket-taker of the tournament.

Shaun Tait finds Shoaib Akhtar’s record tough for Umran Malik

In an exclusive interview with News9, former Australian pacer Shaun Tait talked about the Indian pacer, Umran Malik. Tait said that it is clear that Umran wants to bowl first, and he also has the body to handle the pace at which he is bowling at the moment.

“Umran bowls with high intensity, you can see he wants to just bowl fast, entertain and take wickets. He has natural aggression in his bowling and looks to have the body to handle it,” Shaun Tait told News9 in an exclusive interaction.

Umran Malik recorded the highest speed of 157 Km/h this season, which is the 2nd fastest ball in the history of the Indian Premier League. Shaun Tait has bowled the fastest ball in the Indian Premier League history (157.7 Km/h).

Tait said that Umran Malik will break many records, but it will be tough to break Shoaib Akhtar’s record (161.3 Km/h) of the fastest delivery.

“If he’s hitting those speeds early in his career then he has every chance to break records…it’ll be one fine day when everything just clicks perfectly. But Shoaib Akhtar’s record will be hard to beat,” Shaun Tait said.

Shaun Tait agreed that Umran Malik is a property right now, and he will receive a lot of advice. However, he should ignore what people expect from him and focus on his own path.

“Umran will be receiving lots of advice, he’s going to be a hot property right now, my advice is to be himself and think about the path he wants to take, not what other people expect of him,” Tait said.

About the author

Rishikesh Sharma

Rishikesh Sharma

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An engineering graduate and an ardent sports fan, Rishikesh Sharma is covering cricket for three years now after not making peace with a corporate life and has written more than 5000 articles. While Sourav Ganguly made him fall in love with the sport, Brendon McCullum and Gautam Gambhir enhanced it. Apart from cricket, Rishikesh is a huge fan of Liverpool FC. When not watching sports, you will find him riding around Jaipur.

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