Ashes 2017: England's Dawid Malan reflects on emotional maiden Test century

As Dawid Malan tried to stand up at the end of his press conference, he realised he needed to grip the table to support himself. The adrenalin had finally worn off. The pain, the weariness and the stiffness, the miles in his legs and the hours of clenched muscles, had finally set in. It probably felt amazing.

He will sleep soundly tonight. Going to bed unbeaten on 110 on the first day of an Ashes Test will do that to you. The emotional whirling waltzer of scoring your maiden Test century, in the biggest series of them all, with your parents watching from the stands, will do that to you.

Malan turned 30 in September. He is not a young man in cricketing terms. For much of the last decade, plugging away in the Middlesex order, he has been nowhere near the England side. And for much of that time, it will have been tempting to think that was it for him: a nice, comfortable existence in the county nest.

But it was never going to be enough for Malan. He wanted more. He always believed he was one of those rare players who would save his best for the biggest stage. Eight Tests into his career, he finally proved it. On a bracingly quick Waca surface, he found his element.

“You play county cricket, and you’re more worried about your front pad getting blown off, or nicking off to 78mph dibbly-dobblies,” he said. “So I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of facing these guys: not only technically, but they test your heart as well.”

What of the moment itself - a meaty pull for four off Josh Hazlewood to take him from 98 to 102? “You always lie in bed at night thinking about scoring a hundred,” he said. “But at the time, it all disappears. It becomes a blur, really.

“It was so emotional. I didn’t really know what to do. I almost started crying, to be honest. The amount of sacrifices my old man and mother have made along the way to get me here, to do it in front of them is nice to repay them for all the time they’ve given me.”

Malan was a surprise choice for England last summer, and initially struggled. The defining motif of his debut at The Oval against South Africa was the sight of Malan sprawled on all fours after getting his stumps cleaned up by Kagiso Rabada. “After those first two games, I didn’t think I would ever score a run in Test cricket. Luckily, I’ve adjusted my game a little bit.”

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Malan’s short England career is how he has been flexible to circumstances. After that initial disappointment against South Africa, he opened up his stance a little to prevent himself falling over to the off-side. Against the West Indies, he pared down his flamboyant natural game in order to dig out a score. The two half-centuries he scored probably secured his tour place ahead of Tom Westley.

open image in gallery

Still, Malan arrived in Australia with something less than a reputation. “I was under a bit of pressure coming into the game,” he said. “Every time you open a newspaper, you’re reading about how bad you are. It’s nice to tick a box and prove to yourself that you can play at this level. At the end of the day, it’s the number of hundreds you score. So it was nice to score some runs, and when the team needed it.”

Of course, there is plenty still to do. Even a score in excess of 400 may not be enough to make the game safe, on a surface where both sides have the potential not simply to score, but to score quickly. But a big hundred by Malan would go a long way to prolonging the series past Christmas, and perhaps even setting up a tantalising win.

And so, after a good night’s sleep, a fresh start. There is a still-new ball to be negotiated, a fresh Australian attack, a rejuvenated Nathan Lyon. The job is not quite done yet: not for Malan, and certainly not for England.