'As of now, they both are far from...' - Former Pakistan skipper’s blunt verdict on Umran Malik while using Sachin Tendulkar’s analogy

Umran Malik had a decent recent T20I series at home against Sri Lanka. Since his introduction, his sheer pace has been the main thing. In the 2022 Indian T20 League, he bowled the fastest ball at 153.5 kmph for his Hyderabad franchise. In this recent series, he took seven wickets in three matches, at an economy of 9.63.

So, fans have come up with an expectation that he can break the record of Shoaib Akhtar, bowing the fastest delivery in the history of Cricket. Now, regarding that matter, the former Pakistan skipper, Salman Butt came up and expressed his views on his official YouTube channel.

“As of now, they both are far from Shoaib's record.” - Salman Butt on Umran Malik

In that video, Salman Butt was asked where Umran and Pakistan speedster Haris Rauf can break Akhtar's record. He said: “As of now, they both are far from Shoaib's record. But again, records are meant to be broken. So who knows. But Shoaib used to play all the three formats and used to bowl long spells.” 

Salman Butt also said that Akhtar was a very clever bowler compared to others. “He was just not fast, he was a clever bowler. He know how to dismiss batters, even in Test cricket. Even when he was 39 years of age, when he played his last game in India. he clocked 159. He could bowl that fast even with a six-step run up. The uniqueness that he carried, I don't see that in Umran or Haris,” Butt added. 

“But they are both young so anything can happen. But I just want to remind that whom we are comparing with. It's like sating that if a batter scores hattrick of tons, then we say he might break Sachin's record. That's 100 centuries. People don't even play that many matches in their career. May be they can bowl one-two deliveries of that speed, but will they become that big a bowler only time will tell,” Salman Butt concluded.