|| CF DESK ||

England's former top-ranked T20I batsman Dawid Malan announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect on Wednesday.

Malan has been out of the England squad since the 50-over World Cup in India last year. He was also omitted from the forthcoming white-ball series against Australia.

Speaking to The Times, Malan said he had "exceeded all expectations in white-ball formats", but admitted his inability to keep consistency in his Test career.

"Test cricket was always the pinnacle for me growing up. At times I played well but in between just wasn't good enough or consistent enough, which was disappointing because I felt I was a better player than that," stated by Malan.

"I took all three formats extremely seriously but the intensity of Test cricket was something else: five days plus the days building up. I'm a big trainer; I love hitting lots of balls and I'd train hard in the build-up, and then the days were long and intense. You can't switch off. I found it very mentally draining, especially the long Test series that I played, where my performances dropped off from the third or fourth Test onwards," he added.

The 37-year-old has played 22 Tests, 30 ODIs and 62 T20Is for England. He is one of only two England batters (alongside Jos Buttler) to have made centuries in all three international formats.