Since making his IT20 debut for England at Sophia Gardens in 2017, batsman Dawid Malan has gone from strength to strength in the format.
He now sits at the top of the IT20 batsman rankings, sitting above superstar names like Virat Kohli, Babar Azam and Kane Williamson.
As England begin their five match IT20 series against India tomorrow, Malan reflects on his debut against South Africa, where he thrilled the Cardiff crowd, with a brutal 78 from just 44 balls to help England to a 19-run victory and with it an IT20 series win.
“First and foremost, to make your debut for England is a dream come true," said Malan. "It’s such an honour to get that opportunity and it was unbelievable. I was so nervous and hardly slept.
“I remember getting to the game and hitting balls with Farbs [Paul Farbrace} beforehand at the back. My legs were shaking as well.
“Once the game got started, I just got back into normal I decided that if I do get a chance, I’d do it the way I like to do it and I’d play the way I need to play to fit in to this white-ball team and thankfully it came off.
“It put me in good stead to be a part of the T20 squad over the last couple of years.”
With England playing an IT20 World Cup in India later this year, Malan believes the current series will be an important step in England’s World Cup preparations.
“From a team point of view it’s such an important tour looking ahead to a potential T20 Worlds Cup at the end of the year in India,” added Malan.
“For Morgs [Eoin Morgan] and the management staff it will be a great opportunity to look at different plans and see what works out in India and see what they can learn and use from this tour to put things in place for the end of the year.”
This summer, England and Dawid Malan will continue their IT20 World Cup preparations at Sophia Gardens when they face Sri Lanka in back-to-back IT20s on 23rd and 24th June.
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