For Dawid Malan the three T20 internationals that conclude England’s tour of the Caribbean are anything but an afterthought given they offer him a chance to prove a point following a difficult year.

The 31-year-old has not represented his country since a miserable first Test against India at Edgbaston last August, when he was deemed surplus to requirements following a continuation of his poor form with the bat and three drops, including the India captain, Virat Kohli, on his way to a century.

To make matters worse, Ed Smith, the national selector, branded Malan, who scored an Ashes century in Perth last winter, as a player best suited to overseas conditions. He was also overlooked for the T20 squads last summer and for the one-off match in Sri Lanka in October, despite being England’s top scorer during the Trans-Tasman Tri-Series against Australia and New Zealand last winter.

So there will be no shortage of motivation for the Middlesex batsman when he faces West Indies in the first T20 international on Tuesday.

“It’s tough,” Malan said. “It’s never easy being dropped, it’s your dream to play international cricket and you think it’s gone at the time. Any opportunity to put on Three Lions is an awesome experience. If I do get the chance, to show what you’re made of is always the way to go about it. You can do all your talking off the field but at the end of the day it’s on the field that matters. If I can score some runs that would do me the world of good. I still believe I can play international cricket. I still believe I’m good enough.”

As for Smith’s comments, circulated in a press release announcing the squad for the Lord’s Test against India, Malan admits: “It’s hard when you play your whole career in a country to be told you’re suited somewhere else but the way he explained it to me made more sense than the way it came across in the press,” Malan said.

“It is the way it is. It is disappointing to be tagged with that. So for me it’s about proving a point and showing I can play all over the world.”

Jason Holder will lead a West Indies squad unchanged from the one-day series, with the T20 captain, Carlos Brathwaite, dropping back into the ranks as the hosts look for unified leadership in the buildup to the World Cup in May.

The final two matches of the tour in St Kitts are now expected to be shown by Sky in the UK. The broadcaster had agreed a deal for the whole tour before two extra T20 internationals were added at a later date. West Indies Cricket is still holding out for some kind of extra payment from Sky for the fixtures being played at Warner Park in Basseterre on Friday and Sunday. But it is understood that after pressure from sponsors, it has dropped its demand for a fee of £1m for each match.

Sky have told their team in the Caribbean to travel to St Kitts as normal and although no final agreement has been reached, it appears almost certain the matches will now be screened in the UK.

Probable teams: West Indies CH Gayle, JD Campbell, SD Hope (wkt), DM Bravo, SO Hetmyer, JO Holder (capt), CR Brathwaite, AR Nurse, D Bishoo, SS Cottrell, O Thomas.

England JM Bairstow, AD Hales, JE Root, DJ Malan, EJG Morgan (capt), SW Billings (wkt) JL Denly, DJ Willey TK Curran, CJ Jordan, AU Rashid.