ENG VS AUS | Still am nowhere as good as Virat Kohli, admits Dawid Malan
English batsman Dawid Malan has played down comparisons with Indian skipper Virat Kohli after his red-hot streak in T20 internationals. The southpaw made it clear that he wants to keep performing to the best of his abilities and make it as difficult for selectors to drop him as he can.
Dawid Malan has cracked the T20 format like none other in his international career thus far. He is having a golden run in the shortest format and continued his belligerent run of form with 42 against Australia in the second T20I to partner Jos Buttler in what turned out be a series winning victory. Malan had made a brilliant half-century in England's first T20I win as well after England's back was put against the wall by some brilliant Aussie bowling.Â
If not for the absence of Jason Roy and Ben Stokes, Malan wouldn't have made it to the XI and knows the quality of these players and the difficulty of holding a batting slot in a star-studded English batting line-up.Â
"We all know how good the players are that hold those positions. Their records over the last four or five years have been fantastic. For anyone to break in, you have to be extremely consistent and win games of cricket for England," said Malan to AFP as quoted by TOI ahead of the third T20I, which will take place on September 8 in Southampton.Â
After 15 T20 internationals, the 33-year-old has made 661 runs at an average of 50.84 with a strike-rate of 147.87. The left-hander has seven fifties and a hundred, which came against New Zealand in 2019. His consistency has drawn him comparisons with the T20I king, Virat Kohli. But Malan asserted it's too early to say that and his focus remains on performing well for the side.Â
"I don't think I'm anywhere near as good as Virat Kohli and those guys even though the numbers are sort of suggesting that," he said.
"Maybe if I played 50 games I could be compared to some extent. But all I can do is score runs. If I keep scoring runs at the rate I'm scoring at hopefully it will make it hard for them to ignore what I'm doing and I can somehow find a way into that starting XI."
The Roehampton-born batsman said he has his eyes set on the next year's T20 World Cup in India, as England are already planning for the event.
"They look to plan, so you play in conditions and with game plans that will potentially suit the T20 World Cup in India, which is why I think we are playing on used wickets here," Malan said.
"Especially if you're not contracted you don't really know if you are in or out of the team. But that just means when you do get your opportunity you try to make the most of it," he added.