Dawid Malan, world's no.5 T20I batsman, has admitted that it is tough to break it into England’s T20I squad, but is determined to make the most of the limited opportunities to cement his place at the national side following his impressive show against Australia.
Malan has an impressive record in the T20I cricket, but he is not in England's strongest team and remains a fringe player, only getting the opportunity when either Jason Roy or Ben Stokes are absent.
However, the Yorkshire star admitted that it is “tough” to be not picked despite being in stellar form, but he can’t do anything with selection and he can only put selectors and coach under pressure with his performances when he gets the chances to select him and that he is exactly doing presently.
The left-hander is impressive in the ongoing three-match T20I series against Australia, scoring 66 from 43 balls in the first match to win the Player of The Match award and then 42 off 32 in the second game to help England to win the T20I series at home with the final match to be played on Tuesday (Sep 8).
Malan averages more than 50 in T20I cricket – the highest batting average of any male cricketer in history to have played 15 innings in the format and scored 661 runs at a strike rate of 147.87 so far.
With two T20 World Cups on the horizon, Malan is focused on his performances, aiming to continue score runs for England and hopes he has “ticked a few boxes” with his recent show with the bat.
Malan told reporters: “It’s been tough. We all know how good the players are that hold those positions. ‘Their records over the last four or five years have been fantastic and I’m aware guys like Jason (Roy) and Stokesy (Ben Stokes) will come back into the squad at some point.”
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He further pointed out: “For anyone to break-in, you have to be extremely consistent and win games of cricket for England. It’s my job to score as many runs as I can in the opportunities I have to put pressure on them, Morgs (Eoin Morgan), and the selectors. When you get limited opportunities, you have to make full use of them, and to do that under pressure is very satisfying. Hopefully, I’ve ticked a few boxes that Eoin and the selectors and coaches want, and hopefully, I can keep building on this if I get opportunities.”
Meanwhile, England needs only win – Tuesday’s game against Australia to become the world’s No.1 ranked T20I team and Malan said: “Our aim is to win every series and every game we play.”
He signed off by saying, “Eoin always speaks about the way he wants us to play, and as long as we play the way he wants us to we’re happy with that. If we manage to win and put the Aussies under more pressure, it’ll be fantastic to finish number one.”
(With Reuters Inputs)
