Dawid Malan, England's all-format centurion, announces shock retirement post-Australia series snub

England National Cricket Team batter Dawid Malan has called time on his international career. The left-hander, who was England's former No.1-ranked T20I batter, announced his decision to retire on Wednesday (28th August) but will continue playing in the T20 leagues around the world.

Dawid Malan represented England National Cricket Team in 22 Tests, 30 ODIs, and 62 T20Is. He made vital contributions to the team in all three formats and was one of those elegant left-handed batters who impressed many with his stroke play. He is among the two English batters to hit a century in all three formats alongside Jos Buttler.

Dawid Malan last played for the England National Cricket Team in the ICC World Cup 2023, which took place in India. However, after that, he has been sidelined. He took the decision to retire from international cricket after he wasn't named in the squad for the upcoming white-ball series against Australia National Cricket Team.

Malan made his debut for the England National Cricket Team in T20Is in 2017 and took no time to make an impact. He scored 78 from 44 against South Africa and then after that carried his success in Tests as well. He hit a magnificent ton against Australia, ending with an innings of 140 from 227 balls in Perth.

Dawid Malan's best came in the T20I, as he was a run machine for the team in the format. In 2020, he was the No.1 ranked batter in the format and also became the fastest men's player to reach 1000 runs in the format, from just 24 innings. He was also part of the squad for the T20 World Cup 2022. But he missed the last phase of the tournament due to injury.

Malan then also made a great impact in the ODIs. Although it took him too long to enter the scenes, he ensured that he set the stage on fire in the 50-over format. He hit five ODI hundreds in the space of 15 innings between June 2022 and September 2023. Based on that, he replaced Jason Roy in England's squad for the ICC World Cup 2023, where he scored a ton against Bangladesh.

Announcing his retirement, Malan mentioned that he exceeded all expectations of himself in the white-ball cricket but admitted that he wasn't good enough in Tests. He talked about tough times he endured and while speaking to Times, he explained:

"I exceeded all expectations of myself in white-ball formats. Test cricket was always the pinnacle for me growing up. At times, I played well, but in between, I just wasn't good enough or consistent enough, which was disappointing because I felt I was a better player than that. 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."

I never walked off the field if I got runs not caring about whether we had won or lost - Dawid Malan

Dawid Malan further mentioned that he was always focused on winning the game for the team and he did every possible thing for that. He explained:

"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."

Malan was recently part of the title-winning squad Oval Invincibles in the Hundred 2024.