Dawid Malan
Dawid Malan - Outstanding English Batsman
Dawid Malan was born on September 3, 1987 in London, England. He plays for the National Team and Yorkshire in the local County Championship. As of March 2021, he was ranked first in the ICC T20I batsmen ranking. He holds the absolute record for accumulated points in this format – 915.
When Dawid was seven years old, the Melan family changed their residence, moving to South Africa. Nevertheless, the future cricketer never lost touch with his homeland: after graduating from Paarl Boys High School, he made his debut for the local club Boland, but soon joined the Middlesex, in whose ranks he spent more than ten years. Melan made his T20 debut in July 2006, with his first match against the Surrey at the famous the Kia Oval.
It took Dawid two seasons and 969 runs to move from the Second XI Championship to a first-class team. He drew132 not-outs in June, and a month later recorded a hundred in a match against Lancashire – 24th in the history of the T20 Cup.
In parallel, Melan tried his hand overseas, spending two seasons in the Dhaka Premier League in an all-rounder position. He managed to become the captain of Middlesex in all three formats by 2018, after which he thought about a new challenge. He signed a four-year deal with the Yorkshire in 2019, and a few months later, he completed his first double hundred at the Bob Willis Trophy.
In total, the English cricketer’s track record includes more than ten clubs:
- the Middlesex (2006-2019);
- the Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club (2013-2015);
- the Peshawar Zalmi (2016-2017, 2019);
- the Barisal Bulls (2016-2017);
- the Khulna Titans (2017-2019);
- the Cape Town Blitz (2018);
- the Comilla Warriors (2019-2020);
- the Islamabad United (2020);
- the Yorkshire (since 2020);
- the Hobart Hurricanes (2020-2021);
- the Punjab Kings (2021).
Dawid Malan: game statistics
| Category of competition | Test | ODI | T20I | FC |
| Matches | 15 | 3 | 27 | 192 |
| Wounds | 724 | 90 | 1090 | 11760 |
| Average performance | 27.84 | 45.00 | 47.39 | 38.43 |
| Best score | 140 | 50 | 103 | 219 |
Dawid Malan: performing internationally
Dawid Malan made his international debut rather late. Despite stable performances in the County Championship, his performance (average – 37.80) was insufficient to qualify for the national team. The situation changed only in 2016, when the batsman managed to tighten his stats to the required level.
Melan was called up for the T20 against South Africa in 2017. Having distinguished himself in the first game, he was recognized as the best player of the match, but failed the debut test, making only 35 runs in four innings. However, Dawid was soon invited to participate in the Ashes series 2017-2018, where he managed to demonstrate his best qualities, although the team did not advance very far.
In general, Melan’s play in the test format cannot be called stable: not good enough form did not allow him to gain a foothold in the team, but he felt quite confident in T20I and ODI. So, he completed 24 runs in his debut ODI match against Ireland and soon received an invitation to join the national team on the T20I tour of New Zealand. In November, Dawid scored the first hundred in this format, showing the second result in the entire history of the English team’s performances on the international stage.
In the summer of 2020, Melan took part in all six T20I matches against Australia and Pakistan, recorded 213 runs and came close to the first line in the batsman rankings in the fall of the same year. On the South African winter tour, he was named The Best Player twice more and scored enough points to top the rankings.
In March 2021, during the English team’s tour of India, Melan had the best result among batsmen – a thousand runs in the T20I in 24 innings.
Dawid Malan: interesting facts
- Dawid’s nickname – AC (“AC”);
- Considers Graham Smith, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher as his idols;
- Dawid is a hereditary batsman. His father played for the Teddington, the Northern Transvaal B and some other clubs but chose a different position – all-rounder;
- Dawid’s younger brother Charles also played cricket professionally in the past.
