Dawid Malan vows England won’t go through motions in last three matches at the World Cup… as batsman admits: ‘Our careers are on the line here!’

• England batsman Dawid Malan has stood out during a miserable month
• He wants to use match against Australia to restore pride in the team
• England could be eliminated from the World Cup before Saturday’s fixture

Dawid Malan believes England will spend the last three games of their disastrous World Cup playing not just for their own careers but for the future of head coach Matthew Mott.

During an otherwise miserable month, Malan has stood out, scoring more runs (236), and hitting more fours and sixes (31 and six), than any of his team-mates.

But he said he was aware of the pressure being heaped on Mott, and wants to use Saturday’s match against Australia to restore pride to a team who have performed nothing like world champions.

‘Whenever you have a poor campaign, there is always someone who’s going to be targeted – whether it be the captain, players, coach or selectors,’ said Malan.

‘The only way we can get the noise off the coach is by performing. And it is up to us to win these next three games and take that narrative away, because we have not performed.’

Dawid Malan vows England won’t go through motions in last three matches at the World Cup 

Pressure is mounting on England head coach Matthew Mott after a disastrous World Cup

England may yet go into the match against Australia with their fate already sealed. If New Zealand beat South Africa on Wednesday, and Afghanistan beat the Netherlands on Friday, their mathematical elimination will be confirmed.

But a top-eight finish in the 10-team league will ensure qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy in Pakistan, and there is also the carrot of next year’s T20 World Cup defence in the Caribbean and the USA.

‘People’s jobs and players’ careers are being scrutinised,’ said Malan. ‘We have a hell of a lot to play for. It’s definitely not going to be a situation where we just go through the motions.’

Like every other member of the dressing-room these past few weeks, Malan was at a loss to explain England’s ineptitude, though he played down former captain Michael Vaughan’s suggestion that discord had been sown by the mid-tournament announcement of a new set of tiered central contracts.

‘I don’t think that is an excuse,’ said Malan, one of only eight players out of 29 to receive the minimum one-year deal. ‘We have all been around long enough to still be able to perform whether we get contracts or not. We have just not been good enough.’

Malan also admitted that criticism from Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler’s predecessor, was ‘fair’, but claimed he had no idea what Morgan meant when he said he thought ‘there was something else going on’ beyond a collective loss of form.

‘His job is to have an opinion and he’s totally entitled to that,’ he said. ‘The criticism is fair in the fact that we’ve not been good enough, and we deserve the criticism we’re getting because of it.

‘But I can only comment on us as a group. The boys are still supportive of each other. Hopefully that can turn and we start putting in some performances.’

Source: Read Full Article