Revolving door stops at Malan yet again

ENGLAND GET DAWID BACK IN TEST FOLD

DAWID MALAN will get the chance to prove another point next week when he resumes his Test career with England’s batting in disarray.

The idea that head coach Chris Silverwood and skipper Joe Root might parachute the batsman into the side would have been unthinkable three years ago.

But such is the merry-go-round that is the England team at the moment, perhaps it was inevitable they would go back to him at some point.

With the Test door closed, Malan made a huge success of his Twenty20 career to become the world’s No.1 batsman in that format.

In 2018, he was told he was being dropped because the management thought he was better suited to playing in Test matches away from home.

Malan, below, took umbrage at that suggestion by the-then National Selector Ed Smith.

Since then, he has been picked for neither home nor away series.

Malan had enjoyed a decent Ashes tour, scoring 140 in Perth and 383 runs in the series, but struggled to repeat the trick against Pakistan and India.

He was dropped so that the next bright young thing could start his Test education by going in at No.4 for the first time.

Ollie Pope lasted two matches before Moeen Ali was recalled to help spin England to a series victory, and leave India scratching their heads as to how they lost.

In the intervening three years the fortunes of the two teams could not have been more different, and yet they will meet for the third Test, which starts in Leeds next Wednesday, with incredibly similar sides to 2018.

There is no Ben Stokes, Alastair Cook or Keaton Jennings for England but, other than Shikhar Dhawan, the India side are almost the same.

But whereas India have grown and nurtured their team to the point where they are now a powerful unit, England have floundered and looked elsewhere for talent until they are now back to where they started.

If these were the players to put their faith in all along, they have wasted a lot of time. Former Test star and now Sky Cricket pundit Rob Key said: “England are a team in transition with the bat and have been for a long, long time.

“They have got to start making their bets and sticking with them. “If that is Malan at No.3, then that is absolutely fine, and I think he will do well in Australia this winter. “But there has to be a little bit of long-term planning about where they want to get to with this side.

“We have not got lots of batsmen queuing up and we won’t do until we change the way our four-day cricket is played.”