Umran Malik, India's fastest bowler was born on 22nd November, 1999. He is from Gujjar Nagar in Jammu and Kashmir. This place is famous for Shiva temples. His father Abdul Rashid sells vegetables and fruits at Shledhi Chowk. Umran started loving this game of cricket at the age of three. Academics was not his cup of tea and his family understood it. He is a class X dropout. He is not the only child in his family, he has two elder sisters as well.
Shehnaaz, one of his elder sisters, always stood up for him. She always protected him from his friends, family etc and helped him whenever he needed it. As he was not from a wealthy rich family, he could not afford proper training and equipment. He used to go to the tennis ball tournament, where he would win cash prizes for his performances. At 17, he joined the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council but the only problem he had was his discipline. He got selected into the U-19 team in 2018. He had outstanding pace but he struggled with his line and length. He took a couple of wickets in his debut match in the Cooch Behar Trophy but as he leaked many runs, he was made to warm the bench for most of the tournament. He travelled with the Ranji team as a net bowler.
At the beginning of 2019, fortune was starting to change for him. He received a call from the MRF camp in Chennai and later that year, former Indian Cricket team player Irfan Pathan joined the Jammu and Kashmir scene. Being a pacer himself, he started to work with him on his line and length. As things were looking to improve, difficulties came into his way in tandem, the abrogation of Article 370 affected him personally and could not able to perform properly. That year he played a couple of matches and took three wickets in the lone T20 match against Railways.
COVID-19 was a pain for all the people around the globe but it was a blessing in disguise for Umran as the IPL franchise was made to go for more local talents than foreigners. He got picked up by the franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad and he troubled David Warner several times in the net. When Natarajan had to sit out because of COVID-19, Umran made it to the team and grabbed the attention. This year his performances have improved under the guidance of Dale Steyn. Whole Gujjar Nagar is proud of their son and we all want him to make it big in the national colors.
