Salman Butt Rubbishes Umran Malik’s Comparison With Shoaib Akhtar, Says ‘He Is Nowhere Close’
India pacer Umran Malik comes from a special breed of fast bowlers who can consistently clock over 150 kmph. Umran burst onto the scene in IPL 2021 and immediately attracted eyeballs with his searing pace. Given the fascination towards fast bowlers with raw pace, Umran was fast-tracked into the Indian team.
In the recently concluded T20I series against Sri Lanka, Umran consistently bowled over 150 Kmph but the highlight of his spells was the 157 kmph thunderbolt to dismiss Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka that sent the stumps flying.
Umran’s action has often been compared to Pakistan great Waqar Younis but his searing pace has also drawn comparisons with Rawalpindi express Shoaib Akhtar. Speaking about Umran’s comparison with Shoaib Akhtar, former Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt made a bold claim.
Salman said that bowlers like Umran and Haris Rauf are nowhere close to the veteran Shoaib Akhtar. Butt said that the bowlers are still in their early days and things can change as they play more cricket but as of now, they are far behind 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. 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,” Butt said on his YouTube channel.
