This time last year, Dawid Malan was in the middle of his ODI peak. Having scored back-to-back hundreds a month apart between February and March, during England’s sole warm-up series for the 2023 World Cup he scored another century, a 96 and a 54. Those innings were put together in between dashing back to attend the birth of his second child, a milestone he missed the first time around while touring with England in Australia.

From there, another century came in Dharamshala, where there wasn’t a hint of the disastrous World Cup campaign to follow. Between January 2022 and that innings in Dharamshala, Malan scored six ODI centuries from 17 innings and passed 50 in over half of them. However, by the time he carved the space in that side to score those runs, he was already on the thicker side of 35.

The solidity of the 2019 world beaters prevented Malan’s ODI career from blossoming sooner. The returns were there, multiple centuries for England Lions, including what was then the highest-ever innings in a List A game for the Lions (185 off 126), hatfulls of runs for Middlesex and a non-playing role in a T20I series against Sri Lanka. The only comfort that can be drawn from bashing out what’s required time after time without reward, was that it was never about him. The 2019 set were well established before Malan made his international debut - Jonny Bairstow was the only latecomer. Plenty of players before Malan have been consigned to the margins by those either exceptional or in favour, and plenty after him will go through the same.

Unlike many, Malan’s character and gritty approach to hard work were suited to that situation. With options in the ODI format limited, there were gaps in England’s then-lesser performing Test side. Having been thought of with more potential in the white-ball arena, a century for Middlesex in the early part of the 2017 County Championship having won the trophy with them the previous year, followed by impressing on his T20I debut put him in the frame for Test honours despite a first-class average in the late 30s. By the time the 2017 Ashes came around, Malan had a smattering of half-centuries but nothing substantive. But, on another doomed mission to Australia, he produced the innings that would be pointed to for the rest of his career as to what his selection could bring.

His 140 in Perth, in the Test match Australia would ultimately regain the Ashes in, showed the kind of grit and skill that England lacked in the Test format during that era. There were two more half-centuries on that tour, on which he finished England’s leading run-scorer, and another in New Zealand in the following series. Yet it was only six months later he was dropped in the most damaging chapter of his career, and branded as an overseas specialist by Ed Smith. Labelling players less than a year into their international career is far from the mindset which now encompasses England’s brothers-in-arms type approach. Or maybe it actually was about him all along.

That comment precipitated a three-year Test absence in which he set about his work once more in the white-ball format. Post-2019, Malan came into England’s plans while their champions weren’t available. At the end of 2019, in New Zealand, he hit another gear in presenting his case as a fully-fledged front-runner. He scored England’s second-ever century in men’s T20Is, making his record from his first nine T20Is 458 runs at a strike rate of 156.31. He went past 50 in six of those innings. For context, the player before Malan who made that many scores of 50 or more in the fewest time was KL Rahul, and it took him 15 innings. That side, however, was missing Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Joe Root, and Jos Buttler, with Alex Hales also still not selected. As one of England’s ‘back-ups’, Malan reached No.3 in the ICC T20I batting rankings.

Finally, throughout 2020, Malan earned his spot as part of England’s core. A 55 and a 99* took him to the most points of anyone in the history of the ICC batting rankings - a good quiz question one day. But, as soon as he was established, there were more problems. His strike rate on slower pitches was scrutinised, not helped by a passable 2021 T20 World Cup campaign. For Malan to justify his place, he had to be exceptional.

In the midst of all of this came his final call-up to Test match cricket. Looking back, it’s almost harsh in hindsight that, having finished as England’s second-highest run-scorer and with fewer half-centuries than only Root, Malan was one of the casualties from that tour. But, with a red-ball revolution around the corner, Malan belonged to the previous era.

Dawid Malan retires as one of two batters with 1,000 ODI runs, an average of more than 55 and a strike rate in excess of 95.

He also achieved a peak rating of 915 in the ICC T20I batting rankings - the highest by any batter in the game's history. 💪

➡️ https://t.co/KMpNIuA1O3 pic.twitter.com/Ksn0aZ6Lk9

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) August 28, 2024

In an interview with The Times, Malan detailed his red-ball regrets. “One of the biggest mistakes I made was to keep playing, playing, playing,” said Malan. “Brookie is like me in that he trains exceptionally hard and is clear on what he wants to do. My only advice to him would be to find balance… 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.

“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. Then again, I exceeded all expectations of myself in white-ball formats.”

Less than a year after his final Test match, what should have been the high point of Malan’s career was again in Australia. England lifted the T20 World Cup and became double world champions with Malan part of their squad alongside Buttler, Stokes and the rest. However, days out from the final in Melbourne, Malan picked up a groin injury which ruled him out of the most important match of his career. It was a blow Malan later admitted brought him to tears. Not part of that 2019 group, and denied the chance of his fairytale three years later, there was still a light towards the 2023 World Cup.

It was a light Malan brightened less than a week later when he scored a century in another ‘England back-ups’ series against Australia - the second of the six he would score in the 18 months leading up to the tournament. While the absurd numbers scored in between show Malan at his best, the greatest players are judged by their successes when the stakes are the highest. In 2023, as with the rest of the side, England disappointed.

Malan’s case is almost unique in that squad, however. He was one of two players who would not make another World Cup who did not already have a winner’s medal - David Willey being the other. Over seven years of international cricket, Malan chased the fairytale, with enough talent that was outweighed by his hard work. His career, however, is a reminder that those fairytales don’t always come true, but that doesn’t mean that what happened in between isn’t worth saluting.

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