Ashes 2017: Dawid Malan ready for the 'Gabbatoir' and relishing the challenge of facing Australia's 90mph attack
England’s batsmen are expecting to pay a physical price during this series with Malan admitting bruises will be an occupational hazard against this Australian attack
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Your support makes all the difference.As Dawid Malan looked around the Gabba on his first visit to Australian cricket’s fortress on Monday he admitted to some trepidation at the prospect of playing an Ashes Test at one of the most hostile grounds in the world.
“It’s a bit daunting,” he admitted. “It is quite a big ground. I was saying earlier that I thought the seats would have gone further back, standing here on the boundary you are almost in the crowd so it is going to be an experience.”
Having chatted to Joe Root, England’s captain, about his first experience of the Gabba four years ago, Malan, who has settled into his role at No5 on this tour and struck a century in the final warm-up match in Townsville last week, admits: “I’ve never played in front of 40,000 people so it is going to be a first for me. I spoke to Rooty about his first Test here and he said the occasion really got to him.
“He said the first innings he had was all a bit of a blur and his adrenaline got going with the crowd and he ended up playing a shot he wouldn’t have played in a normal situation, so it is about managing the expectations and your own emotions when you’re out there which is key.”
England have not won a Test in Brisbane since 1986, with Australia having not lost against anyone at the ‘Gabbatoir’ since 1988.
Malan, just five Tests into his career, will not just have to cope with 42,000 baying Australians when he comes out to bat but the challenge of facing three pace bowlers in Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazelwood on the Gabba’s fast and bouncy pitch.
Of that trio, Starc and Cummins comfortably bowl in excess of 90 miles per hour on a regular basis. It a good job then that Malan relishes such tests of nerve.
He said: “I don’t think many people enjoy facing it, but it is a great challenge and when you walk off, whether you’ve got a hundred or nought, the moment you sit down you can feel the adrenaline disappear and it is a feeling you can’t replicate anywhere else. I do enjoy that and I like getting my heart beating and it makes you feel alive.”
England’s batsmen are also expecting to pay a physical price during this series, with Malan admitting bruises will be an occupational hazard against this Australian attack.
“I’d be a bit surprised if you got to walk out of this Test series without a few knocks, but you’ve got to embrace that and know it is part and parcel of the game,” he said. “That is why you play the game, it makes you feel alive when your heart is beating, someone is coming at you, making you feel uncomfortable.
“Speaking to some of the older Aussie players, they talk about having heart more than about having technique and it is about how bad you want it and willing you are to take the odd blow here and there and guts it through.
“It is never going to be easy, Test cricket is not designed to be easy or everyone would do it. I do think it is more about your ticker here than anything else. Whether the ball is coming down to you at 80 miles an hour or 90 miles an hour it is about trusting your instincts and trusting your game and having the heart to get through it.”
Asked if he has ever been scared before when facing extreme pace, Malan replies: “I haven’t yet. We’ll find out.”
Mitchell Johnson certainly put the frighteners on England’s batsmen during the last Ashes series here in 2013-14, when the fast bowler’s 37 wickets inspired Australia to a 5-0 whitewash.
That ordeal has been discussed by the current squad, who will be spared facing the retired Johnson but will have to cope with two bowlers in Cummins and Starc who could prove just as intimidating.
“I think Mitchell Johnson took the boys by surprise a bit,” said Malan. “They’d obviously played against him a few times before and he’s a fantastic bowler, but he hadn’t bowled as well as he did in that series to them before.
“I don’t think they really thought that was going to happen and that is my opinion. When it did hit them it took everyone a bit by surprise and we’re talking about some fantastic players - Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott.
“Coming into this series we are prepared for that, whether we play it well or not, or handle it well or not is a different story and that remains to be seen, but we’ve prepared well for it and it is what happens in the middle that counts.”
Malan and the rest of England’s batsmen will now find out over the coming days and weeks whether their preparations have been enough or not.
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