Malan bats away criticism with fine display for England

DAWID MALAN admitted recent criticism about his place in England’s Twenty20 line- up had “hurt” him after quietening his detractors with a classy 76 from 48 balls in the 89- run victory over Sri Lanka.

The world’s No.1 ranked batsman in the format had recorded just one half century in his seven previous T20s for England, with single- figure scores in the back- toback wins over Kusal Perera’s side last week in Cardiff.

It was a slight blip for a batsman who came into 2021 with a remarkable average of 53.43 and strike rate of 149.47 in 19 matches, but he was back in the runs as England sealed a 3-0 series win over Sri Lanka at the Ageas Bowl.

Asked whether speculation about his role just a few months before this year’s T20 World Cup bothered him, Malan said: “Yeah, it gets to anyone no matter who you are. It does hurt you sometimes, especially if you feel like it might not be fair at the time. Ultimately our job is to score runs and if you don’t score runs, you’re going to get criticism, it’s as simple as that.

“I obviously didn’t score runs in the first t wo games and probably wasn’t at my best, missed a couple of balls that I probably shouldn’t have missed. But it was nice to get a start here and carry on and contribute to a win.”

Jason Roy’s tight hamstring meant England shuffled their batting, with Malan and Jonny Bairstow ( 51 off 43 balls) the t wo openers, and the pair put on 105 in 11.4 overs, seemingly laying the foundations for a 200- plus total.

That did not materialise as a position of 143 for one became 162 for six but England recovered to post 180 without further loss, and Sri Lanka were once again lacklustre with the bat as they were all out for 91.

Malan was quick to pay tribute to captain Eoin Morgan for backing him.

“I think the one thing that this England white- ball team has been so good at it is they don’t listen to the noise, they don’t allow the noise to come in,” he said.

“Eoin and [head coach] Chris Silverwood are fantastic at – as soon as there’s any sort of criticism – backing you as a player because ultimately they’re the ones that make the decisions, not the people that criticise.”