Kolkata : England’s prolific Batter, and former No 1 in T20Is, Dawid Malan has announced retirement from international Cricket on August 28.
Malan played 22 Tests, 30 ODIs, 62 T20Is & scored 4416 runs across all formats. However, he didn’t feature in English squad after ICC ODI World Cup 2023. He’s 2nd english Batter after Jos Buttler to score centuries in all 3 formats.
“It has been an incredible journey since July 2017,” Malan said. “I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to play for England in all three formats”.
“Cricket, like most sports, is an industry where almost everyone eventually retires wishing they had done that little bit more. Whether you’ve played ten Tests or 100, many step away regretting not playing just one more, scoring a few more runs, or winning more trophies”.
“Right now, as I retire from international cricket, I can say I am genuinely satisfied. It has not been easy. It may be my nature, but for whatever reason, it has always seemed that I had something to prove and often felt as if I was playing for my place. The pressure goes with the territory, but it does take a mental and physical toll. Even so, I look back with pride on what I have been able to achieve”, added Malan.
The 37 years old announced his arrival in international arena with an aggressive innings of 78 from 44 on his T20I debut against South Africa in 2017.
His initial breakthrough with England came on the following winter’s Ashes tour, where he made his only Test hundred, 140 from 227 balls, in partnership with Jonny Bairstow at Perth.
It was the T20I format that Malan mastered at. He scored 48 Balls Hundred against New Zealand in Napier, 2019 after England’s World Cup win.
He became the ICC men’s No. 1 ranked batter in T20Is in September 2020 and, after that, in March, he became the fastest men’s player to reach 1000 runs in the shortest format of the game from just 24 innings.
Malan suffered a tear in his groin while fielding against Sri Lanka during the T20 World Cup 2022 and missed the knockout stages, but he was part of England’s T20 World Cup winning campaign in Australia.
He continued with his white-ball heroics as he scored 5 hundreds in 15 ODI matches & replaced Jason Roy as England’s opener in the ODI World Cup 2023 squad.
Malan scored a hundred against Bangladesh in Dharamsala, but could not prevent his team from slipping into a disappointing campaign as defending champions.
Despite his white-ball success, Malan admitted that he wanted to do well for his country in the longest format of the game as well with last Test appearance being in January 2022.
“Test cricket was always the pinnacle for me growing up,” he told, “At times I played well but in between just wasn’t good enough or consistent enough, which was disappointing because I felt I was a better player than that. Then again, I exceeded all expectations of myself in white-ball formats”.
“I took all three formats extremely seriously, but the intensity of Test cricket was something else: five days plus the days building up. I’m a big trainer; I love hitting lots of balls, and I’d train hard during the build-up. The days were long and intense. You can’t switch off”, he added.
“I found it very mentally draining, especially the long Test series that I played, where my performances dropped off from the third or fourth Test onwards”, concluded Malan.
Malan, despite retiring from international Cricket, will be available for Overseas Leagues.
He will be in high demands in the T20 Leagues all over the World for his Batting prowess.
He was most recently in action for Oval Invincibles, helping the team to victory in the Men’s Hundred, two years after he was part of the Trent Rockets squad that claimed the 2022 title.
Last winter, he helped Sunrisers Eastern Cape win the second season of the SA20, and was also in action for Multan Sultans in the PSL.
His inclusion in any team will be their boon , provided he retains his form.
