Having missed out on a place in the national squad for the T20 series against India, Dawid Malan is looking forward to playing for Middlesex when his side faces Surrey in the Vitality T20 Blast. Talking about his inclusion in the team, Malan added that T20 format gets great recognition in the world and also raised some questions revolving around the 100-ball tournament.
"It's not to say that it won't work but the T20 tournament for me is the one that will be recognised around the world, that all the players will play, that you'll be selected to play internationally in T20 cricket, and I can't see 100-ball cricket having a place if I'm honest," Dawid Malan said during the launch of Vitality IT20 where England would be playing Australia in the one-off T20I match.
Malan even opined his views on the uncertainty surrounding the 100-ball tournament, he said "Fifty-over cricket has been dying for the last 10, 15 years, but it seems to be getting stronger and stronger now with the way it's been reinvented by the players, so I think it's a good initiative from the ECB to bring a franchise system in, but I still think T20 is your key and T20 is what everyone associates with.
"I just think it's the unknown of what happens if we don't get picked up, where are we going to be, where are we going to play, will we play 40-over cricket, 50-over cricket, are we going to have five weeks off, what are we doing? No one really knows what's happening and I think that's why a lot of us are standing up and asking relevant questions," Malan said
Dawid Malan who was the Man of the Match in his debut T20I match credits the format which has taught him to handle pressure. "I think one of the major things in international cricket is to learn how to handle pressure.
"You've got to deal with the pressure and the scrutiny from the media and the thing that T20 teaches you is that you have to be able to handle pressure. If you can handle those pressures and be able to go out there and express yourself while you're under pressure, while you're being judged, while you're definitely being looked at and broken apart in every aspect, it gives you that opportunity and gives you that mental strength that you need to succeed at Test level," Malan concluded.
Alongside Dawid Malan, it was Mark Wood who agreed to his thoughts regarding 100-ball tournament after he was excluded from the national squad for 3 T20I against India.
"I think a lot of batters are queuing up for this in the competition. For me personally I'm not a massive fan of that, I mean I'd give it a good go but to think you could go for 60 in ten balls... especially if the first two balls go for six, you'll be thinking 'oh no, I've got eight balls to go here' so it's not going to be the best.
"It's not the physicality, it's more the mental state of getting hit for a couple of sixes early doors but if it is a ten-ball over then it could change the game dramatically, couldn't it? Why not just have two bowlers that just bowl from one end each. You play nine batsmen and have two bowlers, we'll get smacked and you can just keep," Wood noted.
(Inputs from Cricbuzz)
