New Delhi: England player Dawid Malan, who was a former world number one T20I batter, announced his retirement from international cricket on Wednesday. The 36-year-old batter confirmed the same to a British newspaper that he exceeded expectations with his success in the white-ball game but was disappointed that he couldn’t handle the intensity of Test cricket.
Malan, who scored centuries for England in all the three formats of the game, played 22 Test matches, 30 ODIs and 62 T20 internationals. It was in the T20 game where he excelled, becoming No. 1 in the batting rankings in 2020 and winning the T20 World Cup in 2022. Malan last played an international game for England in the ODI World Cup in 2023 and was left out of the squad for the upcoming white-ball series against Australia.
“I took all three formats extremely seriously but the intensity of test cricket was something else — five days plus the days building up,” Malan told the Times. “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.”
Best form between June 2022 and September 2023
The prolific England batter was in his best from during the period from June 2022 and September 2023, where he scored five ODI centuries in 15 innings to cement his place in the ODI World Cup squad for England. He added a sixth hundred in the second match of the tournament to guide England to victory over Bangladesh in Dharamsala, but he could not survive the fall-out from the team’s disappointing overall campaign.
With his seasoned England career at the back, Dawid Malan will surely be on the lookout in the T20 franchise circuit.
England player Dawid Malan, who was a former world number one T20I batter, announced his retirement from international cricket on Wednesday. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
