Ahead of the third Test against India at Headingley, England have brought in David Malan in their batting order. Malan will replace opener Dominic Sibley in the mix. However, the left-handed batsman played his last match against India in red-ball cricket in 2018 at Birmingham. England captain Joe Root heaped praise on Malan, saying he provides a lot of experience at the top of the order.

Malan is capable

Malan has performed well in the County Championship for the last two consecutive years. Due to his good performance here, his return to the team has been outlined. Root thus insisted that Malan is capable of doing great things in Test cricket as he has scored good runs in the County Championship.

Root-

I think (David) Malan gives us a lot of experience in the top three, not necessarily in Tests, but he has also played a lot of red ball in the country with success. I would say one thing about Dawood, he is a good player. He has been under a lot of pressure and most of them have got success. He will be desperate to seize the opportunity and make the opportunity his own.

We have to keep improving as a team. We need to get enough good partnerships: Joe Root

Batting remains the most worrying issue for England at the moment. Their openers were not able to give the team a good start and build their innings into big scores. The hosts’ batting line-up suffered a loss at the hands of the Indian fast bowlers as they could not hold their fort and were dismissed on the final day. However, Root feels that the team needs to build good partnerships and that will be our focus on the third Test and the future

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