Dawid Malan credits fatherhood amid spectacular form as he takes aim at critics
Dawid Malan has credited fatherhood with giving him a better perspective on the ups and downs of his cricket career, even though he is still battling the noise.
The 36-year-old became a father for the second time to Dawid Junior just days before boarding the plane to take part in his first ODI World Cup and the nappy factor certainly seems to have helped following his highest ever 50-over international score.
But even after scoring a brilliant 140 against Bangladesh, Malan was looking to take down any doubters who still question his obvious right to be in the side.
Malan has scored four ODI hundreds in 2023 (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)“I feel like every series I’m under pressure,” said the scorer of four hundreds this year alone. “For me to keep silencing people is all I can do. If I can score as many runs as I can and help contribute to wins hopefully eventually people’s opinions might change.”
It may well be this sense of injustice that keeps Malan pushing for excellence and keeps him looking over his shoulder and worrying about when the next axing will come. But with two young kids at home now, there is something more important than cricket to keep him occupied.
Ballance set to make Test return for Zimbabwe after Yorkshire racism scandal
“It has helped in a lot of ways,” he added. “It gets me away from cricket a lot more. You know, I guess I'm probably a bit of an overthinker sometimes, so to have other things distract me is quite good.
“Fatherhood is brilliant. I never thought I'd be one and to have two little kids has been fantastic, and I guess when you are under pressure, it probably puts things into perspective a little bit. What's the worst that can happen? You get dropped and you just go home to your family, and you live your life. So it puts things in perspective slightly.”
Even so, it is also understandable why he might still be raging, after all here is a batter who was left out of England teams because he had scored an Ashes hundred in Australia.
Former national selector Ed Smith and a former team mate of Malan’s said that he was more suited to conditions that favoured pace and bounce rather than spin. Opening at a World Cup in India kinda dispels that theory.
Former England white-ball captain Eoin Morgan took Malan to task after scoring a T20 hundred (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)Then there was the fury of former skipper Eoin Morgan who raged at Malan for scoring a maiden T20 hundred but refusing to run a bye from the final ball of the innings. Perhaps then it is easy to see why the left hander never truly feels comfortable in whatever England team he is in.
But after ousting World Cup winner Jason Roy on merit, and scoring the hundred that got England’s World Cup up and running, Malan has never been safer in an England shirt.
“He does all his talking with the bat to be fair,” said all rounder Sam Curran. “He's played really consistent cricket for a long time now, he missed out in the first game but in the next he's showed his class.
"It's pretty amazing, his consistency. a big hundred is what we needed and hopefully Mala's form can continue.”
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
