Umran Malik Jaise To Bhot Hai: Former PAK Pacer's Sohail Khan's Another Controversial Statement On Indian Player

New Delhi: Former Pakistan pacer Sohail Khan has made tons of headlines recently since revealing his heated interaction with India's former skipper Virat Kohli during the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. Now another one of his statements has surfaced on the internet. This time India's young pacer maestro Umran Malik was on his target.

Given his experience playing for India, Umran is young, quick, tireless, and, most importantly, quite disciplined. Umran has played 16 matches for India, eight of which have been ODIs and eight of them in T20Is, and has taken 24 wickets at an average of less than 30 in each format since making his debut in June of last year.

Umran's specialty ain't his economy, he tends to leak some runs but the team management has always believed in backing his wicket-taking ability. He provides the Men in Blue side with crucial breakthroughs in crucial moments. The young pacer has been appreciated by almost everyone including his SRH mentor Dale Steyn, Australia's Bret Lee and even Pakistan's legendary bowler Wasim Akram.

However, during a recent interview at The Nadir Ali Podcast, Sohail Khan made a shocking remark and said that Pakistan's domestic circuit is filled with pacers like Umran Malik. He said "I feel this Umran Malik guy is a good bowler. I've seen 1-2 matches. He runs fast and has kept other things is check as well. But if you think of fast bowlers with speed in excess of over 150-155 kph, I can count 12-15 players right now who play tape-ball cricket. If you go visit the trails organised by Lahore Qalandars, you'll find many players."

"Iske (Umran Malik) jaise toh bohot hain. Domestic cricket bhari padi hai hamaari. (Our domestic setup is filled with bowlers like Umran Malik). When a bowler comes through in our domestic level, he becomes a bona fide bowler. Like Shaheen, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf... these are bowlers who know their stuff. I can give you plenty of names," he added.

Sohail Khan then also spoke about how Umran or anyone in the matter would never be able to break Shoaib Akhtar's record. He said "There is only one thing that can break Shoaib Akhtar's record, and that is called a bowling machine because no human can ever do it. The reason is that the amount of hard work that Shoaib had put in, no one has. He used to complete 32 rounds in one day; I used to do 10 in a week. He would run on mountains with weight tied his legs and sprint."