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England batter Dawid Malan has revealed that a big weight lifted off his shoulders when his second son was born earlier in the month. The left-handed batter reflected that it allowed him to go back to playing cricket freely and regain his form.
Malan's wife Claire was in labor during the fifth Ashes Test of the 2021-22 series Down Under. Expecting his second child this year, the 36-year-old batter kept visiting home during The Hundred 2023, with the baby boy being born in September.
Speaking to BBC Sport, the southpaw recalled that household stress along with the build-up to the ODI World Cup was too much to handle for him. However, everything disappeared when his second child was born.
"That didn't help when I had stress off the field and it's building to a World Cup. There's stress from a pundit and media point of view; scrutiny because I was dropped by the Rockets. That added to everything else. After he was born it was a massive relief. It felt like there was so much weight on my shoulders. That disappeared. I was able to go back to doing what I do, which is play cricket with a clear mind," Malan said.
The Middlesex batter is one of the fastest to reach 1,000 ODI runs, achieving the feat in 21 innings. Malan averages 61.52 with 1046 runs. His scores of 26, 54, 96, and 127 in the recent series against New Zealand assured him a place in England's World Cup team ahead of Jason Roy.
"Sometimes it does get frustrating" - Dawid Malan on being under constant scrutiny
Malan admitted to being frustrated for always being under scrutiny after one or two failures.
"I feel like I'm always one or two bad innings from someone saying I should be dropped again. Sometimes it does get frustrating. The majority of the time I've managed to handle that and to prove people wrong. That is what gets me going, gets me into the fight and makes me tough it out," he explained.
Defending champions England will kick off the 2023 World Cup by taking on New Zealand on October 5.
