Dawid Malan Test career: The English batsman has been recalled into the Test Playing XI after a three-year gap.
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During the first day of the third Test of the ongoing India’s tour of England in Leeds, India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat after losing eight in a row at the highest level.
“We’re batting first. Looks firm and without grass and runs on the board will set this up. About my batting, I’ll try to make an impact for the team with the bat. I believe in my process and sometimes it doesn’t really come off on the field, but I’m more concerned about how much of an impact I have on the team’s performance,” Kohli told Sky Sports at the toss.
Coming on the back of a 151-run victory at Lord’s, India were unlikely to make changes to their Playing XI. However, there were talks about India including ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin due to the nature of surface at Headingley.
Apart from confirming why they haven’t tinkered with a winning combination today, Kohli also explained why Ashwin continues to sit out in this high-profile series.
Dawid Malan Test career
Hosting India in a Test at this venue for the first time since 2002, England captain Joe Root was “quite happy” to lose the toss.
There’s a bit of cloud cover and it’s tacky, and it’ll get better and better for batting eventually. Quite happy to lose the toss. We need our openers to get us to a good start. It’s one of the hardest things to open in England, as Virat [Kohli] said, and the openers have the temperament to get us off to a good start,” Root told Sky Sports at the toss.
Unlike the visitors, the hosts have made a couple of changes bringing in batsman Dawid Malan and pacer Craig Overton for Dom Sibley and Mark Wood. The development means that Haseeb Hameed will be opening the batting alongside Rory Burns and that Malan will play at No. 3.
“[Dawid] Malan comes in for [Dom] Sibley and [Craig] Overton comes in for [Mark] Wood. Overton was picked on the conditions. Saqib [Mahmood] was great in the white-ball format, but Overton continuously performs in county cricket so we’ve picked him, even though it was a difficult choice to make,” Root said with respect to picking one between Overton and Mahmood.
Malan, who has played 15 Tests for England between 2017-18, is returning to their white-ball XI after three years. Having become a regular member of England’s white-ball teams of late, Malan was dropped from the Test team after scoring 724 runs in 26 innings at an average of 27.84.
C Overton stats
Overton, on the other hand, is making a Test comeback after playing his last match during Ashes 2019 in Manchester. In four Tests till date, Overton’s nine wickets have come at an average and strike rate of 44.77 and 78.50 respectively. However, in 102 first-class matches, Overton has dismissed 359 batsmen at an average and strike rate of 23.28 and 47.30 respectively.
