‘He is nowhere close’ - Ex-Pakistan skipper rubbishes comparison of Umran Malik and Shoaib Akhtar

After his superlative performances for Hyderabad in the 2022 season of the Indian T20 League, pace-bowling sensation Umran Malik made his way to the Indian team. The 22-year-old, who bowls consistently in excess of 150kmph, recently played a T20I series against Sri Lanka and impressed everyone.

Umran is currently making waves because of his express pace. However, he had a mixed performance against Sri Lanka in the T20I series. The speedster took seven wickets in the series but was quite expensive. Former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt gave a blunt statement for comparing Umran and Pakistan speedster Haris Rauf with Shoaib Akhtar.

“As of now, they both are far from Shoaib's record. But again, records are meant to be broken. So who knows. But Shoaib used to play all the three formats and used to bowl long spells. He was just not fast, he was a clever bowler. He know how to dismiss batters, even in Test cricket. Even when he was 39 years of age, when he played his last game in India. he clocked 159. He could bowl that fast even with a six-step run up.” Butt said on his YouTube channel.

It’s like saying that if a batter scores a hattrick of tons: Salman Butt

Salman was asked if Umran and Haris can break Akhtar's record, and he said that the two stand nowhere close to the legendary pacer's ability. The former Pakistan batter explained that with Akhtar having played all three formats and having consistently clocked well over 155 kph, the two youngsters have not shown that ability so far. The former Pakistan captain also used Sachin Tendulkar in his analogy.

“The uniqueness that he carried, I don't see that in Umran or Haris. But they are both young so anything can happen. But I just want to remind that whom we are comparing with. It's like sating that if a batter scores hattrick of tons, then we say he might break Sachin's record. That's 100 centuries. People don't even play that many matches in their career. May be they can bowl one-two deliveries of that speed, but will they become that big a bowler only time will tell,” explained former Pakistan batter.