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Umran Malik, who created a sensation with his pace bowling in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season, has gone AWOL after a poor start to IPL 2023. He has been kept out of the playing XI by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and has not played for the side in 19 days, or 456 hours.
When asked about the same to SRH skipper Aiden Markram, he gave a very strange answer, saying, he himself does not know why Umran has not played for the side. His comments, coming during the toss, has not gone down well with cricket pundits as well as fans on social media.
Umran last played for SRH against DC on April 29. Since then, he is going missing. When SRH skipper Aiden Markram was asked about Umran, he said, "Not too sure to be honest. Certainly, he's a player with the X factor, and bowls at 150kph, but I don't really what's about behind the scenes he has a lot of X factor.. Lots of pride to play for. Guys are full of energy and determination.”
Here are some of the reactions to Markram's statement:
Earlier, head coach Brian Lara gave his own clarification on why Umran has been omitted from the side.
"You just have to look at the form of the player. We have great expectations of Umran, and he has got Dale Steyn to work with. But we have to play each game to win. We have to put our best eleven out on the field. And now, with the Impact Player, our best 12. It's strictly on the fact that it's about the form of the player that we look at before picking the team," Lara said after his team lost their second consecutive match.
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