Dawid Malan steps up in time in England’s search for the right No 3 | Tanya Aldred

With the Ashes three months away, Malan returned to Test cricket and showed why he belongs on the biggest stage

It always comes back to Australia. The tour that was, the home series to come. Every two years, a relentless obsession for English cricket. A trap.

And now, with only two and a half Tests left of the summer before a possible winter tour down under (Covid permitting), thoughts intensify. Performances count double through a baggy-green lens. England, despite a confusion of planning – at times too clever by half – of who to rest and when, the Ashes roadmap unfurled, seem to have fallen on their feet. A No 3 has appeared. He was, it turns out, hiding in plain sight all along.