Former No. 1 T20I batter Dawid Malan announces retirement from international cricket

Star England cricketer and former No. 1 T20I batter Dawid Malan has announced his retirement from international cricket. The 37-year-old represented England in 22 Tests, 30 ODIs and 62 T20Is in his 7-year-long career. 

Malan last played for his country in the ODI World Cup 2023. He was the highest run-scorer for England, scoring 404 runs in 9 matches, averaging 44.48 with one century and two half-centuries in the tournament. His decision to retire comes after being overlooked from England's white-ball squad. 

While speaking to the Times, Malan said he "exceeded all expectations of myself in white-ball formats." 

He also admitted that he regretted not having a more consistent Test career. He believed Test cricket was the pinnacle growing up. "Test cricket was always the pinnacle for me growing up. At times I played well but in between just wasn't good enough or consistent enough, which was disappointing because I felt I was a better player than that," he said. 

"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," he added. 

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I never walked off the field not caring about whether we had won or lost: Malan 

Malan went on to say that he always played in a way that was right for the team. He admitted that winning was all that mattered to him irrespective of his individual performance. 

"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," he said. 

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