Dawid Malan The consistent one among freaksUpdated: 9 Jan 2026, 11:04 AMSamim Islam
Dawid Malan looks imposing with a bat in hand. It's an assessment that every
bowler who has run into him this year will concur with. He's six feet tall and
lines up almost fully straight and upright before the ball is bowled - with
shades of Marcus Trescothick to his stance. Early on Tuesday morning in
Dharamsala, full of sunshine and opportunities on a flat wicket, he put on
display minimal footwork for an outrageous shot that would've made Trescothick
proud.Bangladesh fast bowling pair of Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed started
promisingly, getting the ball to subtly move or straighten and beat both the
opening batters in the first four overs. Malan had had enough of that, and
planted his front foot just a touch out of the way and whacked a delivery angled
into him from the left-armer behind square leg for the first six of the innings.
It was premeditated, all the way back from the nets sessions on Monday.Less than
24 hours before he pulled off the audacious hit, he was doing it in the nets
against throwdowns. For a good 20 minutes, Malan hit shots on both sides of the
net with his feet firmly planted in place. Drives against fuller throwdowns came
easily but for short and length deliveries, he reached out to cut, pull, and
flick, the way he did against Mustafizur in the game, without moving his feet.
It seemed like a peculiar drill to do on the eve of a game, but clearly came
with potential for application in a game situation.
This replication, straight from the training ground, threw Bangladesh off their
game, and kickstarted what was an extremely busy first half of the game for
Shakib Al Hasan. This was the first of numerous occasions where Malan forced
Shakib to make a reactionary field change. Fine leg and square leg fielders
constantly went in and out, based on which area Malan expertly targetted. At the
end of the first 10 overs, he'd outpaced and outscored his opening partner,
Jonny Bairstow, who playing his 100th ODI for England.Malan comfortably used his
feet against Mehidy Hasan, a spinner who had previously kept him on a leash in
the format, and blunted him. He stepped up to be proactive right after Bairstow
fell, fought past a period of lull between overs 20 to 30, before spearheading
England's violent up-shift in gears, incidentally against Mehidy again. An
exasperated Shakib gestured wildly and changed his field every ball but to
little avail as the over fetched 22 runs, with Malan hitting two fours and two
sixes.