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Eoin Morgan not bothered by criticism on Dawid Malan, hails him as an incredible player

Aryasekhar Chakraborty

England limited-overs skipper Eoin Morgan is not bothered by the constant criticism being levied on Dawid Malan who is currently the top-ranked batsmen in the ICC T20I rankings. Some sections of the media have come out hard at Malan for his relatively low returns in the limited-overs leg of the India tour. Despite all the criticism, Morgan is not bothered at all and hailed him as an “incredible batsman”. 

Malan has the best average and strike rate among the current England batsmen and has been churning out runs in this format on a consistent basis. His method of starting off slowly and then going after the bowlers and his indifferent record in international and domestic T20 competitions has made many experts question his role in the team. Malan doesn’t have much experience of playing in the subcontinent and had struggled for runs during the recently concluded T20I and ODI series. 

Not long ago, former England great Kevin Pietersen stated that he will prefer Stokes coming up the order and with Bairstow looking in ominous touch in this format, he will like him to bat at No 3. 

“I’d move [Stokes] up the order,” Pietersen said on the Sky Cricket Show. “I’d bat him at four. Bairstow is an opening batsman in the one-day game as we’ve seen, bats right at the top of the order, and having watched the display that he put on in Pune the other night in the one-dayer, it got me to a decision that for a T20 World Cup in India, I believe that he should be batting at three, Stokes should be batting at four.

“Malan is a touch and feel player. He plays the short ball well. But when he’s got to go after the spinners, and when the pace is slowed down in the middle overs in the subcontinent, it’s difficult to bat, it’s difficult to continue hitting those boundaries, it’s difficult to continue hitting those sixes. And having experienced it in the last couple of weeks, I know exactly how hard it is to do that. So, as difficult a decision as it will be and it should be, I’d bat Bairstow at three and I’d have Stokes at 4.”

Despite all these talks, Morgan said that he is not paying any heed to the media criticism and will back Malan given the form he has shown ever since coming into the team. 

“No I pay absolutely no attention to it, ” he said, also on the Sky Cricket Show, a week after Pietersen’s appearance. “It’s definitely not the mood in the camp. The mood in the camp is that Dawid is the No.1 ranked batsman in the world, the highest-ranked No.1 player of all time, which is an incredible achievement given the names that have been No.1 player in the world.

“Looking at the way that he played and the manner in which he has played since he’s come into the side, it truly has been incredible. I’ve played with Dawid for a very long time, and to see him get even better than he has performed in a Middlesex shirt and in a Yorkshire shirt is both great to see and adds a huge amount of value to an already strong batting line-up.”

Back in November 2019, rumours surfaced that Morgan and Malan were not getting along well following Malan’s fastest T2oI hundred in November 2019. Morgan criticised him for not pushing hard for a last-ball eye and was subsequently dropped for the final three T20I matches. However, Malan has quashed all these rumours and the ill feelings between the two. 

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