Dawid Malan eyes PSL route to England recall
England's Dawid Malan is looking to revive his international career through performances PSL 2019.
DUBAI (Agencies) - England batsman Dawid Malan s is looking to revive his international career through performances in the Pakistan Super League 2019.
Malan played for Peshawar Zalmi in the 2017 edition of the PSL before he made his debut for England. He did well in the tournament, scoring 175 runs at 29.16 at a strike-rate of 138.88.
Later that year Malan made his international bow, first in the T20I format and then in Tests. He feels his experience playing in the PSL went a long way in getting him primed for international selection.
Despite showing ample promise – the left-hander scored an excellent maiden Test hundred against Australia in the 2017/18 Ashes – Malan hasn t quite been able to pin down a place in the international team. Subsequently, he has fallen out of favour with the selectors and last played an international match in August 2018.
Malan is now looking to claw his way back into the England fold, and the 2019 PSL offers him the perfect platform to prove his worth.
“I’d obviously rather be with England at the moment, but playing for Peshawar Zalmi was a massive stepping stone for me to play for England,” Malan said.
“It allowed me to play on the biggest stage, in front of massive crowds, with the pressure of being an overseas player, which is pretty much as close as it gets to playing international cricket.
“The lessons that I learnt with them were absolutely fantastic, so to be able to come back and join the team after missing last year, is fantastic for me.”
He feels he has already shown his ability for England and is aware that an opportunity will come his way if he performs consistently. “My ambitions are still to play for England,” Malan said. “After [last] winter, I have only had five international innings after my breakthrough into New Zealand and Australia.
“Even in the Twenty20s I have not been part of anything since, so from that point of view it is obviously disappointing, but I feel like I have shown what I can do. Five innings ago in Test cricket I passed 50, and I passed 50 in my last T20 innings, so I don’t think I did that badly.
“There are spots up for grabs and there are opportunities if you start well. At the end of the day, it is going to be about weight of runs. You can’t score a couple of 50s and expect to be picked for England. You have to score big hundreds.”
