Sanjay Manjrekar said that Umran Malik should be given a chance to play Test cricket for India instead of white-ball cricket. However, India are currently touring the West Indies for two-match Tests, three ODIs and five T20Is, with the first Test taking in Roseau on Wednesday, July 12. While Umran has been added to both limited-overs squads, he has not been picked for the Test so far.

During an interaction with News24 Sports, Manjrekar said: “I believe if you have to pick Umran, give him a chance in Test cricket because we saw when Mark Wood played the last Ashes Test, a guy who can bowl 90 miles her hour, his specialty is that the tail-enders don’t stay against him for long. So if you have to see Umran Malik, instead of white-ball cricket, if you have a Test series that is not that high-profile, give him a chance there, three-four over spells. So he will be an X-factor in our bowling.”

However, Umran Malik did not have great returns in first-class cricket. He has picked up just 12 wickets at an average of 46.67 in the seven long-format games he has played as well.

“When you have a lot of pace, there is a lot of pressure in white-ball cricket, you have to bowl absolutely accurately, if the ball goes even slightly here and there, you can prove expensive and then the captain does not gamble that much. This is how Pakistan used to think earlier, when they had young bowlers who bowled 90 miles an hour, they fast-tracked them straightaway into Test cricket and not much in white-ball cricket. There wasn’t much T20 cricket at that time,” he concluded.