Born in Kirk Sandall, Yorkshire, Mallender was a right-arm fast-medium bowler and a right-hand lower order batsman who improved as his career progressed.
Mallender was born in Kirk Sandall in Yorkshire, but spent the early part of his childhood in Somerset, before moving to Lincolnshire, where he attended Bourne Grammar School.
During this time, he gained representative honours at schoolboy level for county and country, captaining England youth on a tour of the West Indies.
A right-arm fast-medium bowler, and an increasingly useful lower-order batsman, he was capable of bowling at a sharp pace, operating within himself and using the conditions expertly.
[3] Mallender proved to be a good selection, bowling with controlled swing and pace and able to lure the Pakistan batsmen, unfamiliar with the conditions, into rash strokes.