Former selector Dilip Vengsarkar said that he would’ve picked young pacer Umran Malik in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup, starting next month in Australia. Umran impressed everyone with his pace during the Indian Premier League season this year, picking up 22 wickets in 14 matches for SRH in IPL 2022. He was rewarded with a national call-up and made his debut against Ireland in June this year. Vengsarkar feels that this was the right time to pick the youngster as his sheer pace could’ve made the difference, especially with the tracks in Australia offering pace and bounce.

“There is no out-of-the-box thinking. I would have picked Umran Malik because of his speed. He is a guy who is bowling 150kmph; you’ve got to pick him now, you can’t pick him when he becomes a 130kmph bowler. In Dubai, where the wicket was flat and grassless, where there was no bounce, you needed fast bowlers. If you had medium pacers, you would be tonked around. You needed fast bowlers who could beat the batters in pace,” Vengsarkar told Sportstar.

Vengsarkar said that he has been also impressed by young batter Shubman Gill, adding that the likes of Mohammad Shami and Shreyas Iyer should’ve also been selected.

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“Shreyas Iyer is in good form and he missed out. Mohammed Shami and Shubman Gill should also be on the team. I am impressed with Gill,” he added.

Gill recently made his County debut for Glamorgan, and also scored a century for them in a game against Sussex.