Paul Collingwood has backed England’s Dawid Malan to find the form that led him to be rated as the number one Twenty20 batsman in the world.
Malan has managed 80 runs from 77 deliveries across the series against India, which will be decided in Saturday’s fifth and final match.
“Dawid hasn’t quite found his rhythm on this tour,” said England assistant coach Collingwood.
“You’ve got to remember where he is in the rankings and that’s no fluke.”
Left-hander Malan, 33, still leads the International Cricket Council’s batting rankings. In December, at the end of England’s 3-0 series win in South Africa, his rating of 915 was the highest ever attained.
Though he has failed to pass 24 in the first four matches against India, he still has nine half-centuries and one hundred from 23 games, at an average of 49 with a strike-rate of 144.
“What he’s done with an England shirt on in T20 cricket is pretty much exceptional up until this series,” added Collingwood.
“He’ll be the first person to say it hasn’t gone quite as well as he’d like in the first four games but he’s got an opportunity again to do something special.”
Collingwood described the series decider – the teams are tied at 2-2 going into the game – as a “final” for England as they build towards the T20 World Cup to be held in India in October and November.
“It’s a huge game,” said the former England all-rounder. “It feels like another great opportunity to get experience of knockout cricket.”
“Leading into a World Cup you need these kind of experiences to see how players deal with the pressure. It’s another experience you can draw on, to use the memories of, to hopefully have success.”
Collingwood, 44, was England captain when they won the T20 World Cup in 2010.
The only survivor from that team still playing is current skipper Eoin Morgan, who led England to 50-over World Cup glory in 2019.
Collingwood said it was “very hard to compare eras” but the class of 2021 is “more powerful”.
“Going into this World Cup we will be feared by a lot of teams because of our white-ball form over the past four years,” he said.
“We’ve got a matchwinners from one to 11.
“It’s a totally different team from 2010, but I don’t think we could be in a better place to go into a World Cup.”
Meanwhile, England have been fined 20% of their match fee for a slow over-rate in their eight-run defeat in the fourth T20.
India have called up batsman Suryakumar Yadav, who is uncapped in ODIs, pace bowler Prasidh Krishna and spin-bowling all-rounder Krunal Pandya for the three-match one-day series in Pune, which begins on Tuesday.
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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