SRINAGAR: Dawid Malan has spent much of the past 12 months as the No.1-ranked batter in T20I cricket… and the No.1 bugbear for many England analysts, who believe that his calm, measured, safety-first approach to massive run-scoring is a counterintuitive approach in a format that seems to get faster and more furious by the week.
Until his recall against India last summer, it barely seemed to register that that same trait might actually be rather more welcome in the game’s longest, most measured format.
“I thought I would never play another Test again,” he admitted on the third evening at the Gabba, after playing an innings that might yet reignite England’s Ashes campaign.
At the age of 34, Malan knows his game, and England’s Test team is all the more grateful for that fact. With a compact stance, a fondness for the drive, and a slight propensity for a nibble outside off that is no more pronounced than many of the miscreants who have tried and failed to fill the No.3 berth since his last Test in 2018.
