Malan’s war cry to battered tourists
DAWID MALAN insists that far from sulking after losing the Ashes, England are desperate to regain some pride in next week’s Boxing Day Test against Australia.
The Middlesex batsman, fresh from his maiden Test hundred in Perth, is aware this tour is in a bad place after Joe Root’s men surrendered the Urn with an innings defeat at the WACA that gave Steve Smith’s Australians an unassailable 3-0 lead heading into the fourth match of the series in Melbourne.
However, unlike England’s last Ashes tour four years ago, when they lost the last two Tests at the MCG and in Sydney as a divided squad unravelled to be whitewashed 5-0, Malan says this current group are united and determined to go toe-to-toe with Australia in the final two matches of the series.
“The guys in there are already talking about the next game in Melbourne and how we desperately want to get our pride back and want to win,” said Malan.
“No-one’s sitting in there feeling sorry for themselves
> and blaming people or anything like that.
“We hold our hands up where we’ve been bad and where we’ve been poor and where we need to improve, and I’m sure the boys will be going back to the nets this weekend and working on those things.
“None of us are the finished article, even Alastair Cook, who’s played 150 Tests, he’s still working on his game. He has two or three hits extra every week, he still puts the time in, and that’s just the way it is. It’s not through lack of effort or trying by any of the boys.”
England have been blown away by Australia’s ‘pace cartel’ of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazelwood.
Their treatment of tail-enders has bordered on the spiteful, with Cummins hitting James Anderson on the helmet in the closing stages of the third Test in Perth.
Malan says the tourists need to match that aggression and reproduce what they did in the day-night Test in Adelaide earlier this month, when the Australians were in disarray against the moving ball as they were skittled out for 138 – the lowest total of the series so far.
“I personally believe we need to be aggressive with these guys as they are with us,” he said. “If you ever take your foot off the gas with these blokes, they seem to really, really dominate.
“It showed at Adelaide when we were aggressive to them under lights in their second innings. We attacked them and they fell away just as we did at certain times when they attacked us.
“I genuinely think that whether you’re batting or bowling or fielding you have to be aggressive – if you’re going to bowl a good length you have to be aggressive.
“It doesn’t mean you have to chirp, it doesn’t mean you have to get in people’s face, but when you bat you have to look to score runs, when you bowl, look to take wickets, be positive in everything and don’t take your foot off and let them get into the game.
“Hopefully we can keep that positive attitude for five days, not just two and a half sessions or two and a half days or whatever it is.”
England’s tour has been beset by off-field problems but Malan says this squad are united in their determination to turn things around – even if it is in a lost cause.
“There have obviously been a few silly things that have happened off the field which has sort of put the tour in a bit of a bad place,” he said. “But, and this is not just me saying this, the team spirit is probably the best I’ve ever played in.
“We’ve lost 3-0 and the boys are extremely disappointed but Chris Woakes did 35 miles in the field [during Australia’s innings in Perth] and it’s not through lack of trying or anything like that.
“The boys are putting the effort in and the boys respect that. As long as the guys are giving their 100 per cent and not shying away from the challenges, the team spirit will always be good.”
As for his own contribution in Perth, despite following up his first-innings 140 with 54, Malan was disappointed he did not do better.
“Sitting in the changing room and seeing the wickets collapse in the first innings [England lost their last six for 35 runs] I think I let myself down the way I got out.
“It’s disappointing not to win the game after scoring a hundred. I think I’ve shown that I can play at this level, especially out here in Australia. But as I said, I’m disappointed I didn’t push on in both innings to help us win the game.”