England’s Dawid Malan announces retirement from international cricket

Dawid Malan (Twitter)

England’s former No.1-ranked T20I batter, Dawid Malan has announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 37. Malan played a significant role in England’s white-ball success over the past decade. The left-hander last featured in the team in the 2023 ODI World Cup in India.

Malan’s international journey began with a bang in 2017 when he debuted in T20Is against South Africa, scoring an impressive 78 from 44 balls. However during the 2017-18 Ashes tour Malan truly made his mark in red-ball cricket, scoring a brilliant 140 at Perth, his only century in the format.

Although his Test career never quite reached the heights he had hoped for, his performances on Australian soil stood out among England’s top batters. “Test cricket was always the pinnacle for me growing up. 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,” Malan said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

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I took all three formats extremely seriously: Dawid Malan

After England’s 2019 ODI World Cup victory, he forced his way into the T20I side, with his consistent performances, including a 48-ball century against New Zealand in 2019. By March 2021, he became the fastest player to score 1,000 T20I runs, achieving the feat in just 24 innings. In 2022 he was part of England’s T20 World Cup-winning squad, though a groin injury cut short his participation in the knockout stages.

“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 in the build-up, and then the days were long and intense. You can’t switch off. 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,” he added.

In ODIs, Malan was somewhat a late bloomer. Despite being considered a natural fit for the format, it wasn’t until 2022 that he began to regularly feature in the Three Lions’ 50-over squad.

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In ODIs, he scored five centuries in just 15 innings between June 2022 and September 2023. His efforts earned him a spot in the 2023 World Cup squad, where he added another century against Bangladesh, though England’s overall performance in the tournament was below average.

“But, you know, on the field I always did what I felt was right to win a game for the team. I never walked off the field if I got runs not caring about whether we had won or lost. It was always about winning and I’d always question myself as to whether I’d made the right decisions on the field to do that,” the southpaw concluded.