National selector Ed Smith has defended the dropping of Dawid Malan after a poor show at Edgbaston, and a poor overall record. He has been replaced by Ollie Pope, who will bat at number four at Lord's.

National selector Ed Smith has defended the dropping of Dawid Malan after a poor show at Edgbaston, and a poor overall record. He has been replaced by Ollie Pope, who will bat at number four at Lord's.

While some feel Malan career may been over, Smith was quoted as saying in a CricBuzz report, "He has had a full calendar year of Test cricket and he knows where he is at. He has shown that he can play very well at Test level.

"He showed with that excellent Test hundred at Perth that he can play very well on the international stage. We talked about general form which everyone understands and then specifically he has aptitudes that not everyone has,” he added

Praising Malan, he went on to say, "Not that many people score hundreds at Perth, I know Ben Stokes has and Brian Luckhurst scored a hundred at Perth but not that many Englishmen have looked as comfortable at the WACA as Dawid did.”

Apart from struggling with the bat, Malan also dropped Virat Kohli twice as the latter went on to hit a supreme hundred

--By A Cricket Correspondent