England squad announced for the Third Test against South Africa; Westley, Malan included

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) released the 13-man squad for the Third Test against South Africa at Kennington Oval, London. Dawid Malan and Tom Westley have been named in the squad for the Test match. Gary Ballance misses out of the squad due to his finger injury. The series is currently locked at one all with England winning the first Test at Lord’s and losing in the second Test at Trent Bridge

Dawid Malan, who recently got the flavour of International Cricket lately in the T20 series against South Africa, gets a place in the 13 man squad in the English side. Malan scored an impressive 78 off 44 balls in the controversial 3rd T20 where Eoin Morgan decided to sit out to test their reserves in the format of the game. Malan was the one who effectively replaced the English captain as Jos Buttler was handed over the captaincy in the match.

The other newcomer chosen into the England squad is Tom Westley, who has accumulated 478 for Essex this Championship season at an average of 53.11, smashing two centuries in the process. Also the fact which forced his selection in the squad is his record against the South African pace bowling attack. England Lions last winter and at Worcester last month, where he scored 106 not out against South Africa’s full strength bowling attack.

South Africa came back strongly with the presence of their captain Faf du Plessis. England’s Joe Root has been at the receiving end of a substantial amount of criticism post the Trent Bridge loss. Michael Vaughan and Ian Botham also questioned the presence of Ballance in the batting order.

England squad:

Joe Root (c), Jonathan Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Liam Dawson, Keaton Jennings, Dawid Malan, Toby Roland-Jones, Ben Stokes, Tom Westley, Mark Wood