IPL 2022: SRH Star Umran Malik And Pakistan’s Haris Rauf Stories Are Almost Similar Feels Lahore Qalandars Owner

He even credits Lahore Qalandars to inspire Indian Premier League with Rauf's example.

New Delhi: Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) star pacer Umran Malik has been impressive in the matches he has played till now. His extra pace has been lethal for the opposition batters and they often find him difficult to pick. At an economy rate of 8.23, Umran has managed to pick 10 wickets in 7 matches. Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise Lahore Qalandars owner Sameer Rana has even compared Umran’s story with Pakistan sensation Haris Rauf.

He even credits Lahore Qalandars to inspire Indian Premier League with Rauf’s example. 28-year old Rauf was picked without any prior experience any first-class experience and even managed to break the door for Pakistan’s national side.

Speaking to a private news channel, Rana said,” I am very happy that Lahore Qalandars have not just impressed Pakistan cricket but also Indian cricket. If you look at Umran Malik’s story, you will see that it has been a Haris-Rauf inspired story. Maybe they had followed Haris’ story and must have thought if it can happen in Pakistan, then why not in India. Because there are a lot of similarities. Both started from white-ball cricket, are from Jammu and Kashmir, no background in first-class cricket.”

Rana added that he was criticised a lot when Rauf got featured in Lahore’s squad. However, now the situation is completely from what it was before. Rana continued,” “I have never seen that happen in IPL before. And it happened until Haris, who became a success and gave others a new pathway. I hope it doesn’t happen to Umran, but we were criticised a lot when Haris was in our team that we killed domestic cricket and affected the sport. But today, he is Pakistan’s pride. When he goes abroad and plays for teams like Yorkshire, they call him ‘Pakistani superstar’. So we have given cricketers a new pathway and I want to take credit for that.”