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Dawid Malan finds himself in a rather unique cricketing impasse in the sense that he will be starting off this County season for Yorkshire as a batsman as well as a batting coach on the side.
Malan, the ICC’s No. 11-ranked T20I hitter (Phil Salt and Jos Buttler are the only Englishmen ranked higher), is unlikely to join the squad for the 2022 championship defence with the T20 World Cup two months away. Even though he is only halfway through his one-year ECB central contract, he is already considering his next move.
Malan, who turns 37 in September, declared at November’s 50-over World Cup that he would be giving up first-class cricket to focus on his white-ball career, which includes this summer’s T20 Blast. Despite missing out on the Caribbean white-ball tour at the end of last year, he kept himself occupied with appearances at the SA20 and PSL during a winter that started with the 50-over World Cup in India.
He got back from Pakistan two weeks ago, and as of right now, he doesn’t want to hit balls till early May. With more than 100 caps and hundreds in all three international formats, Yorkshire hitters now have an extra sounding board at Headingley. It will demonstrate to Malan whether coaching is a career path he wants to take after he decides to hang up his boots.
“It’s quite exciting,” said Malan. “I’m going to do a bit of coaching in my off time and help the boys out two or three days a week. I’ll work with the firsts and seconds, whoever is around. I’ll see if I can share some of my knowledge, if anyone wants it, and if it’s something I enjoy for after cricket.
“I still feel I’ve got two or three years of playing if things go well and I can still perform, but I want to give back as much as I can now. It’s exciting to be back and give myself a different kind of challenge for this time of year than I usually have.
“It’s an unofficial capacity. Whoever is at home, be it first team or second team, I’ll throw some balls and speak to whoever wants to speak to me about batting without treading on any of the coaches’ toes.”
Despite leading England in scoring at the 50-over World Cup with 404 runs at 44.88, Malan was not included in the Caribbean sides selected by Matthew Mott and Jos Buttler. Other well-known hitters were left off in order to save them for the India Test series that begins in 2024. But without Malan, it felt like a complete letdown.
About why he might not have much longer to play cricket for his country, Malan was reticent. After England’s disastrous ODI campaign in India, he spoke with the management, albeit he would not say exactly what they discussed. Key will clarify his future plans with him during their encounter in the upcoming two weeks.
“I have no idea what they are thinking at the moment,” he said. “We have got appraisals in 12 or 14 days so I’ll probably find out a bit more then. I will just take it as it comes. I am not looking too far ahead or wanting something that might not be there.
“If it is, it is; if it isn’t, it isn’t. I have made peace with that. I have a different path that I am looking at at the moment in terms of the last two or three years in my career and if things pop up, they pop up. And if they don’t, they don’t. It’ll be interesting to see where things are and, yeah, it’ll be good to have a good chat with Keysy.”