England finished strongly with their openers being dismissed early. Skipper Joe Root (86*) along with Dawid Malan (80*) added an unbeaten 159 run stand to bring solidarity into their innings. Root went past 1500 runs for the calendar year in the process. The southpaw has find a new lease of life after making a comeback in test cricket.

Speaking after the day’s play, Dawid Malan opened up on his gritty knock in many ways. With the openers dismissed early, Malan needed to stand along with his captain and score runs and he did exactly that.

Dawid Malan brings up his fifty off 121 balls #Ashes pic.twitter.com/g3lMof1s6F

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 10, 2021

“I thought I’d never play another Test again,” Malan said after Stumps on Day 3. “I actually said to Root when we were on 40 or 50… we both had similar scores… ‘I’ve really missed this’.

Test Cricket Is The Pinnacle For Me: Dawid Malan

“Test cricket is the pinnacle for me. You can do as well as you want in T20 cricket, 50-over cricket or whatever other format you like, but you’re judged a lot by your Test career. To come to Australia and play against quality fast bowlers on these bouncing wickets is the real test.

“For us, an Ashes series is the biggest series of our calendar. To come here and get runs against this really good attack is very satisfying. I’m so proud to be able to stand out here in an England shirt. Especially to do it here at the Gabba in front of everyone.”

Dawid Malan praised England for making a comeback in the Test match. They were bowled out for 147 on the very first day of the Test match.

“We need another 250-300 runs tomorrow to put ourselves in a good position. “We need one more 100-run partnership to put a good score on the board and then who knows what can happen? But we learned in the last series [in Australia] that as soon as we think too far ahead, you open the door for them and they’re so brilliant at closing that door for us” Malan said. 

“The job isn’t done yet. Just getting an 80 doesn’t mean you’ve made it. It’s about hopefully scoring the big hundred that will change the game” concluded Malan.

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