Former New Zealand cricketer, Simon Doull seems pretty impressed with the fiery Indian pacer, Umran Malik after the latter made his ODI debut against New Zealand on Friday, November 25 at Eden Park in Auckland. Malik finished the game with the figures of 10-0-66-0 in the first ODI of the three-match series as the Kiwis chased down 307 with 17 balls to spare.

Simon Doull said that Malik has brought a lot of control to his line and length, which wasn’t the case in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. The veteran said that having played only four List A games thus far, the Jammu and Kashmir speedster has a lot to learn in the 50-over format.

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During a chat on Cricbuzz, Simon Doull said, “It was a decent debut, you know. You ask him to go out and bowl quickly and I thought it was controlled early on. He was very good and wasn’t wayward, which we saw at times through the IPL. To me, it was a really good debut on a tough pitch. I think there’s a lot to work with. You can’t judge a guy by one performance.”

He further added, “Remember, he has only played three List A games prior to tonight and so, he is learning. It’s never ever going to be easy against quality players on quality batting pitches. I am going to give him a pass mark tonight and watch his improvement as the series goes on.”

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Umran Malik, once, had figures of 5-0-19-2 after he picked up the crucial wickets of Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell. The right-arm pacer also touched the 150 kmph-mark a couple of times, with his highest being 153.1 kmph.

The fiery pacer was also a part of the Indian squad for the three-match T20I series against the Kiwis, but he didn’t get a chance to ply his trade in the 20-over format.