I Was Very Emotional When I Got Dropped From England Test Team 3 Years Back: Dawid Malan

England opener Dawid Malan admitted that he was very emotional after he was dropped from the Test side three years ago and went in a downward spiral for 3-4 months after that. However, he has put everything on the backburner as he readies for this comeback into England whites for the third Test against India.

The third Test of the five-match series will be played at Headingley in Leeds and will begin on August 25. India leads the series 1-0 after a sensational victory in the second Test at Lord’s as England were bowled out for 120 runs inside 60 overs on day five chasing 272 for win.

This led to England making quite a few changes as they dropped Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley from the team, recalling Dawid Malan. The hosts will also be missing the services of Mark Wood who injured his right shoulder at Lord’s and is expected to be replaced by either Craig Overton or Saqib Mahmood.

When You Get Dropped You’re Very Emotional: Dawid Malan

Malan, who is the no.1 ranked T20I batsman in the world currently, has played 15 Tests scoring 724 runs with one century and 6 half-centuries at an average of 27.84. His last Test came against India at Birmingham during the 2018 series. Dawid Malan has admitted the manner of his dropping for England three years ago still hurts.

‘I think at the time when you get dropped you’re very emotional, you feel you should be playing. You work your absolute socks off in your career to earn the right to play for England and you get that call. It probably did affect me for the next four, five, six months,” Malan said.

Malan will be coming back into red-ball cricket on the back of just one FC knock this year, which was 199 at Headingley.

‘Yes, not playing a lot of red-ball cricket probably doesn’t help with the rhythms and the flows of Test cricket but that’s the challenge that we as players have,’ he said.

Want To Score Those Big Hundreds: Dawid Malan

Dawid Malan will have a score to settle when he plays. Though an opener, he won’t be taking the first strike with Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed expected to open the innings, probably with Malan batting at no.3. However, he has a point to prove after his recall and insists he is now targeting scoring ‘big hundreds’.

‘I think we all know how tough English conditions can be at times. If we are here we believe we are good enough, and it’s up to us to find a way of doing it, batting for long periods of time. A good 30 or 60 is not good enough really, you want to score those big hundreds and to do that you have to bat for a day, day and a half.

That’s where the challenge comes when you don’t play a lot of red-ball cricket, but I don’t think we’d be here if we didn’t believe we could do it,” Malan added.

Joe Root will be hoping for some help from the other end as he has been carrying the England batting single-handedly for the first two Tests.

Also Read: You Can Make Mistakes In Planning Or At Any Stage – Virat Kohli On Joe Root’s Captaincy Blunders At Lord’s