Thursday 14 December 2017 13:41, UK
Dawid Malan hit his maiden Test match century as England finished day one of the third Ashes Test in Perth on 305-4, and Nasser Hussain insists the Middlesex man's knock showed all the character that originally got him selected for Joe Root's team...
He's a great character and that's what got him into the Test team. It was a bit of gamble bringing him into the side off the back of one T20 international but they wanted him in the side because of his character. He showed that character in his knock at Perth and during his brief Test career so far.
To get your maiden Test hundred on a ground that is very alien to English batsmen because of its pace and bounce and with the Ashes on the line, it would have meant a lot to him. Without his knock we may well have been saying the Ashes were gone.
He can now push on from this, not just in his career but also in this match. It looks a very good pitch, especially once the new ball is gone because there's not a lot of sideways movement at all. Everyone talks about the pace and bounce but that also means it comes onto the bat nicely. It's a quick outfield so England need a big score of 400 plus in their first innings and Malan will be important in that.
There's no better feeling than starting the next day with a hundred under your belt but he, alongside Jonny Bairstow, will need to kick on and get a big, big score to put England in driving seat of this game.
With England moving Bairstow up to six it just shows you that changing the tiniest, smallest thing can make such a massive difference. You hear that it was a last-minute decision to move Moeen Ali up to six above Bairstow in the batting order, and England often make these last-ditch decisions but they rarely pay off.
It's staring you in the face that Jonny is one of England's best six batsmen and he should be batting in the top six. Moeen Ali is also good with the tail as he showed in the summer and it was working that way round so why change it? Thankfully, they've put it right now and Jonny responded with a beautiful knock.
He looked in great touch. I've never seen him play with such a straight bat. Occasionally when he's out of form his bottom hand takes over but he played with the full face of the bat and at the WACA, it's like having an indoor net so if you can hit through the line like he did you force them to bowl short, and then you can cut and pull.
It was vital for England that Malan and Bairstow got through that little spell against the new ball. If they'd lost a late wicket or two, just like they did in Adelaide when Pat Cummins bowled Malan on the fourth evening, it would have been a big blow, but now they can start again in the morning.
Like I said earlier, I don't think 400 will be enough on this pitch. It looks an absolute belter so England need to go huge in their first innings. Then, for the first time in the series, England can put Australia under pressure and see how their batsmen plan when there are runs on the board against them. It won't be easy but they must get as many as they can on day two. It's a pacey, bouncy old-style WACA wicket and the tail will not fancy facing Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Cummins so it's crucial Malan, Bairstow and Ali go big.
There was a bit of controversy surrounding Mark Stoneman's dismissal during the afternoon session but I thought the right decision was made in the end.
You could say that Aleem Dar could have asked for a few more angles to make sure the correct decision was made. England were a bit cross because Dar seemed to rush to the decision, failing to ask for all the angles available. I wish the third umpire would take a little bit more time to get all the relevant angles, however, it was the right decision and despite all of the talk, Dar will argue he got it right.
We're privy to the conversations and the director will give the third umpire exactly asks for as long as he's got the right angle. In the end we saw the director had the exact angle that was needed. The big moment in any game of cricket is the wicket moment so you should take a little bit more time to make that decision.
On a more positive day for England, one concern will be Alastair Cook's form. He's been here before and as much as he seems to be struggling we've seen before he can quickly find his form again, that's why he's played 150 Test matches.
I said before the game that we can't write Cook off - it was only a few Test matches ago that he was getting a double hundred. The problem for Cook is that Australia have bowled well at him. In the second half of his career, people have said they've worked him out but it's not as simple as just pitching the ball up to him.
Where Australia have been good to him is they've used the short ball, pushed him back, bounced him out in the first game at the Gabba and now in the back of his mind he's looking for the short ball. His weight is back and it was virtually a half-volley he was playing back to today.
He naturally hangs back anyway so when he's back in the crease like that he becomes very vulnerable to the full ball and lbw. He has been here before though and his mental toughness has been called on to get him through. There's only so many times you can go to the well and dig deep mentally but if there's anyone you want to dig deep mentally, it's Alastair Cook.
He won't be worried about the talk over his form, that's the last thing he'll worry about. He's not a lad for social media or anything like that. He's an old-fashioned cricketer living in a modern world where everybody finds out what is said about them.
What Alastair will be concerned with is one, England win the game to stay in the series and two, he'll want to make a meaningful contribution himself towards the series. That's all he'll want to do. He hasn't played particularly well against Australia recently and he'll want to put that right.
