England’s Dawid Malan marked his first first-class game in 2021 with a score of 199, suggesting he could yet again be a force in Test cricket.

The last time England toured Australia, Dawid Malan was one of the few bright spots for the visiting side. He made a memorable maiden ton at Perth and added another three half-centuries, averaging 42.55 in the series. No current England player averages more either in or against Australia.

It looked like England had found a player with the technique to thrive against properly fast bowling and the temperament to guts it out in the toughest of environments. However, three Tests into his return home – Malan averaged 14.80 against Pakistan and India with a high score of 28 – he was left out, with Ollie Pope debuting in his place.

As many do when dropped from the Test side, he struggled initially on his return to county cricket, averaging under 30 in the 2018 season. But since then he’s got one of the best records in the country. In 2019 Malan made four first-class hundreds, averaging 48 with a top score of 199. A move to Yorkshire ahead of the 2020 season seems only to have improved him further, albeit from a small sample size: in four games for the club, he has an average of 88.50, with his last two innings reading 219 and 199, Malan dismissed one run short of a second career double hundred in his first first-class innings of 2021.

He might be timing his run just right too. England’s top order has been picked with the future in mind, and with the Ashes still all-important in England’s planning, a continuation of the poor form experienced by Dom Sibley or Zak Crawley could see a route back in for Malan, even if only as a stop-gap. He is 33 years old, so he hardly qualifies as a long-term option. Equally, there are plenty of notable examples of cricketers playing at the top level well into their late thirties, even their forties, so his age need not disqualify him from selection.

What’s not clear is how England’s change in selection structure could affect Malan’s chances. The Middlesaxon-turned-Yorkshireman didn’t always have the best of relationships with Ed Smith, notably taking umbrage when Smith said “it may be that his game is better suited to overseas conditions” after dropping him in 2018. Malan has gone some way to proving he’s just as capable in England as he is elsewhere, but there’s some truth in Smith’s suggestion, with Malan’s strength against high pace on the back foot coming to the fore Down Under.

However, while Smith was comfortable picking batsmen for a specific set of conditions, with Keaton Jennings recalled to tour Sri Lanka in 2020, it’s hard to be sure where Chris Silverwood lands on the issue. He has wanted England to adopt a new yet old-school style of batting time and grinding teams down no matter the conditions. If England’s approach is to stay the same no matter where the game is being played, it might be that he wants their personnel to do the same.

Still, Malan can hardly be doing much more. Prolific whenever he gets the chance, whether that’s for Yorkshire or in white-ball cricket for England, he might now be in his prime. If there is a conversation about the make-up of England’s top order ahead of the Ashes, he deserves to be firmly in the discussion.

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