Umran Malik, the 25-year-old pacer, made a comeback to cricket on Tuesday, August 26, playing for his state team, Jammu & Kashmir. He had been away from the game for a while, his last appearance being on March 27, 2024, when he played for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Mumbai in the IPL 2024.
In Jammu & Kashmir’s third game of the Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament, Malik, who was known for his pace during the 2022 IPL season, made an impact straight away by taking two wickets in a row.
In his first over, Malik bowled a ball that went past Odisha’s opening batsman, Om Munde, and hit the stumps. Munde could only score 8 runs off 11 balls. Then in his next over, Malik bowled out Odisha’s captain, Subhranshu Senapati, on the very first ball and he got a golden duck.
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Malik who made headlines in IPL 2022 with a record 156.9kph ball, last played top cricket in 2024 season. He spent almost 6 months at BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru during his rehab. Before the Buchi Babu Tournament Malik said he sees this domestic season as a stepping stone to his comeback to the Indian team.
Fans shared a video of Malik’s celebration on X and it went viral.
Pick two wickets in 2 balls , great to see Umran Malik is back in cricket https://t.co/zw7VA8W9hN pic.twitter.com/70sLK7yUDN
— Almir (@Almir_Talks) August 26, 2025
Malik has 13 wickets in 10 ODIs and 11 wickets in 8 T20Is for India. He missed the previous domestic season due to a hip injury. After being signed by Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 75 lakh in the IPL 2025 mega auction, he had to pull out of the tournament due to another injury. But he did join the Kolkata team in the last week of April to continue his rehab.
In the recent match, Malik bowled 10 overs for Jammu & Kashmir and took 2 wickets for 35 runs.
Besides Malik, Abid Mushtaq and Vanshaj Sharma took four wickets each. Their bowling helped Jammu & Kashmir bowl out Odisha for 314 in the first innings.
For Odisha, Govind Poddar scored 74 off 121 balls at number 4 while Rajesh Dhupar scored 104 off 196 balls. They added 100 runs for the fourth wicket after Odisha was 45/3 in under 18 overs. After Poddar’s dismissal, Dhupar then partnered with Kartik Biswal who scored 53 off 91 balls and added 98 runs for the fifth wicket.
