Malan has a score to settle
DAWID MALAN has not had the easiest of starts to his Test career for England but he now stands perhaps just one innings away from a place in the team for this winter’s Ashes in Australia. Handed a red-ball debut earlier this summer just a few months before his 30th birthday, he was cleaned up for a single run in his first innings, South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada sending down a yorker that would have done for plenty more experienced batsmen.
After such an ignominious start in Test cricket – Rabada’s delivery left him sprawled on all fours – Malan has worked his way into the swing of things with half-centuries in each of the first two Tests against West Indies.
The Middlesex batsman now heads to his home ground Lord’s in the knowledge he could cement a place in the side for the first Ashes Test with a maiden international hundred – as if the pressure of a series-deciding fixture was not enough to focus the mind. “If you start looking too far ahead and start pre-empting things, you get lost in that moment and you don’t focus on the present,” said Malan.
“I wouldn’t say I’m more secure in any way or form. I need to score runs in the next Test and if I score enough runs and that’s good enough for the England selectors and the coaching staff and I get selected for the Ashes, that would be awesome.
“My main focus is to try to score as many runs as possible in this Test at Lord’s.
“I don’t think you ever feel like you belong in Test cricket. It’s a tough sport and it’s called Test cricket for a reason. I am happy with my performances, although I am disappointed I haven’t managed to go on and score a hundred with the two starts that I have had.
“But hopefully it’s a good wicket [at Lord’s] and I can get stuck in and manage to convert that.”
Malan is one of three batsmen – Tom Westley and Mark Stoneman the other two – who have made Test debuts this summer and whose places on the plane Down Under in November remain unreserved.
The last 12 months have seen England blood nine players in just 13 Tests, with the new boys revolving around a core of senior players. Malan, whose 44-ball 78 in a June T20 international against South Africa won him the confidence of the selectors, is fully aware of the need to prove his point.
“Every time you pull on an England shirt you don’t know if that’s going to be your last one or not. You’ve got to perform and not think too far ahead,” said Malan.
“Hopefully if you put in match-winning performances or contribute to a team win then it puts you in a good position to be picked after that.”