Malan finally feels he belongs after leading Dharamshala cakewalk

WHEN England arrived back at their team hotel last night, after the reassuring dismantling of Bangladesh in Dharamshala, they were greeted with a cake for cutting in what is a familiar celebratory ritual among teams in the Indian Premier League.

- Malik Ouzia

Given he was frogmarched onto the scene by his captain, the day’s century-maker, Dawid Malan, did not seem overly keen, aware, probably, that the dessert would soon be being used to redecorate his face.

But even as he stumbled around the entrance, trying desperately to claw eyelets out of his icing mask, he would surely have conceded that among all his victories in an England shirt, this one tasted particularly sweet.

The tale of Malan’s curious international career is by now well-told: late on the scene and somehow always the first in line to be cut.

Often, he was judged not on how many runs he scored, but on how he scored them, not without reason, but usually with sharper scrutiny than afforded to sexier rivals.