Batting with Joe Root is great, he takes off the pressure from you and puts it back to the opponents: Dawid Malan

England batter Dawid Malan said the team is cautious despite having led a brilliant fightback on the third day of the Ashes opener in Brisbane’s Gabba. After being dismissed for a paltry 147 in the first innings and conceding 425 to Australia, England made a spirited comeback, finishing only 58 behind on the third day, with skipper Joe Root and No. 3 Malan standing tall and strong in the 80s.

England were rocked early in the second innings too when Pat Cummins had Rory Burns caught behind, while Haseeb Hameed followed suit off Mitchell Starc, but a 159-run Root-Malan stand means the Test hangs very much in the excitingly balance, with two days left.

“Yeah, I think that’ll always be thought in the back of people’s head, but I think the one thing that we need to learn is… I think we learned that in the last series, as soon as we think too far ahead, you open the door for them, and they’re so brilliant at sort of closing that door for us,” Malan told reporters in a virtual conference after his sturdy innings.

“So, I think that the first hour’s really important for us tomorrow, and then we can start thinking about how well we can play. But we need one more good 100-run partnership to put a good score on the board and, who knows what can happen?”

Joe Root speaks for himself : Dawid Malan

Malan was all praises for Root, who has had an incredible run of form in the longest format in 2021, having surpassed Michael Vaughan’s record for most runs in a Test calendar year as an England batter. Root, who has 1541 runs in 2021 at 67 including six centuries in 2021, is more than 600 runs clear of the second leading run-scorer Rohit Sharma (906 at 47.68).

With a couple of Ashes Tests to follow in the calendar year, he is well in line to surpass Mohammad Yousuf’s all-time best of 1788 in 2006.

“Joe Root obviously speaks for himself with what he’s done in his career. Batting with him is great. He takes the pressure off you, he always looks to score, he seems to somehow find a way of putting the pressure back on the bowlers, and his method just works everywhere he plays,” Malan said.

“So for him to carry on the form that he had in our summer and early on in the English winter has been fantastic, and it’s great signs for us as a team that Joe’s playing well out here and leading from the front.”