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Picture Credit: Twitter

Umran Malik has managed to draw the attention of several cricket fans and experts around the world towards him and forced them to take notice of the talent that he has. While playing for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Malik has not only been clocking speeds above 150 kmph but has already a bowl in excess of 157 kmph. This particular delivery was not only the fastest ball in IPL 2022 but remains the second fastest ball in the tournament ever.

Whatsmore Malik even hit the helmet of Hardik Pandya with a fiery bouncer. While it could be intimidating for any batter to play such express, who better than Sunil Gavaskar to play the Indian pacer. Notably, Gavaskar expertly played the West Indian fast bowling quadrant including Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Colin Croft among other fearsome bowlers.

While batters in the IPL get to face only four-over bursts from Malik, a testimony to the legendary's batter solid technique was the fact that he made heaps of runs in Test cricket while facing long spells from these bowlers. In addition, Gavaskar did not have access to high-quality cricket safety equipment which has made cricket a lot safer for the present-day batters. The former India captain did not even wear a helmet.

With all these things taken into consideration, it does not come as a surprise that Gavaskar has expressed his desire to face Malik. He said, "I would love to face Umran Malik," while on air during the IPL 2022 match on Wednesday. Malik has already earned the praise of Gavaskar who has backed him to play for India soon.

"Umran Malik has been very, very impressive with his speed but more than his speed, it's his accuracy (that's impressed). A lot of guys who bowl at that speed tend to spray the ball around but Umran bowls very few wide deliveries," Gavaskar had earlier said on Star Sports.

For now, Malik would hope to get back amongst the wickets after a few expensive spells in his last few matches for SRH.