Yorkshire star and England hopeful Dawid Malan on top of the world T20 rankings - and plans to stay there

Dawid Malan is now striving to do just that, with the Yorkshire star determined to retain his rank as the world’s No 1 batsman in Twenty20 cricket.

Malan, who reached that status in early September, despite not being guaranteed a place in the England team, or even possessing a white-ball central contract, hopes to cement that status in the three-match series in South Africa that runs from November 27 to December 1.

With the likes of Pakistan’s Babar Azam and Australia’s Aaron Finch breathing down his neck in the global rankings (England’s next highest-ranked batsman is captain Eoin Morgan in 10th place), Malan knows he must keep the bar high.

“I’ve heard people say before that it’s easy to get to No 1, but it’s staying there that’s the hardest,” he said.

“The challenge is always to stay there and to try and be as consistent as possible, and it’s that that pretty much drives me really.

“Just playing and being consistent is the way to improve, and to be part of this England team, or to break into this England team, you have to be extremely consistent when you get the opportunities.

“If you just get a couple of 10s and 15s, or whatever, then you don’t really stamp your authority.”

Malan, 33, has been remarkably consistent in his international T20 career.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate that is to reel off his innings in chronological order: 78, 50, 10, 59, 53, 11, 39, 55, 103*, 11, 23, 54*, 7, 66, 42, 21.

Suffice to say that there are not too many 10s and 15s among that lot.

Malan ponders the question of how he got to be world No 1.

“Keeping it as simple as I can, I think, and trying to learn from the mistakes I made when I played Test cricket,” said a man who averaged 27 in his 15 Tests.

What mistakes were those?

“Oh, you know, trying to put too much pressure on myself, trying too hard, trying to please too many people, that sort of thing,” he said.

“Now it’s just sticking to the things that I know work for me and trusting in my own game-plans and trying to execute those as well as I can.”

The formula is working well; Malan averages close to 50 in T20 internationals, with a strike-rate approaching 150.

The left-hander promises to be a key figure when England play back-to-back Twenty20 World Cups in India next year, and in Australia the following year, but he insists that he is not looking that far ahead.

“It’s obviously a dream of mine to play in a World Cup, but those two tournaments are still a hell of a long way away and there’s still a lot of cricket to be played before then,” he said.

“I’m not looking at that. I’m just trying to focus on what’s in front of me at the moment. If, in a year’s time, I’ve still been as consistent and got the opportunities and scored the runs and I could get on the plane to India, then that would be ideal. Until then, I have to keep working as hard as I can.”

One way in which Malan hopes to cement his No 1 ranking and expand his game is by playing more T20 franchise cricket.

He has a gig coming up with Hobart Hurricanes in the Australian Big Bash, where a successful spell could potentially further his claims to participate in the Indian Premier League.

“I’ve actually been quite fortunate since 2016 in that I’ve pretty much been on the (franchise) circuit - Bangladesh, PSL (Pakistan), the South African one, T10,” he said.

“Big Bash and the IPL are the two that I haven’t played in yet, so thankfully I’ve got an opportunity to play in the Big Bash this winter, so hopefully that can go well and, if I score runs there, who knows what could happen with an IPL auction further down the line.

“My main focus, though, is just to score runs for every team I play for.”

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