The number one ranked T20I player, England’s Dawid Malan feels that the ranking is of no importance when you are competing for a place in a team like England, especially at the top of the order.
"It is not something I am really looking at right now. It doesn't guarantee runs; it doesn't guarantee you a spot in the team. It's something that, the day I retire, I will look back on it with fond memories,” Malan told reporters in a Press Conference via a zoom meeting from Newlands, Capetown.
The South Africa-raised batsman though is aware of the fact that the higher one’s rankings are, the more they are looked to and the more pressure is on them. “That's something I am trying to not let affect me, by not worrying where I am in terms of No. 1, or 20, or 100 in the world."
The 33-year-old, who was selected into the national team as early as 2016 but couldn’t really get a permanent place, will be going into the series with 682 runs under his name at an average of 48.71, including seven fifties and a hundred, as well as a strike rate of 146.66. Yet he is unsure of whether he will make the cut or not.
"I can't control selection. All I can do is put in the work in the nets and if I get the opportunity to play, keep scoring as many runs as I can to put pressure on the guys that have the spots.”
Saying that he would ‘like to start in the playing XI’ the former Middlesex man asserts that he has ‘no idea’ on whether he will or not. “That's a question for the selectors, the coaches, and Eoin Morgan,” he said.
Malan has been part of the last seven T20Is, but that has only happened due to the absence of established names like Jason Roy and Ben Stokes. Now as they are back, it would become difficult for him to get a place in the team and he is well aware of that.
"I don't think it's ever just given on a plate. If you look at the limited opportunities I've had since I was in the first Twenty20 squad in 2016, I've only played 16 games. You obviously look back and think you probably didn't get as much of a run, but that's understandable because of the quality of players England have had - they won a World Cup and been absolutely fantastic,” he said.
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