Joe Root and Dawid Malan kept the hopes alive for England as the two batters stayed unbeaten by the end of Day 3 of the ongoing first Ashes Test at Gabba, Brisbane.

Australia were in the driving seat in the morning session on Day 3, having taken a massive first-innings lead of 278 runs. After bowling out England for a paltry 147 on the opening day, the hosts piled up a massive 425/10 on the back of Travis Head's swashbuckling ton (152 off 148 balls).

Batting in the second innings, England lost both openers Rory Burns (13) and Haseeb Hameed (27) cheaply but Root and Malan led the fightback for the visitors with gritty half-centuries.

Both of them absorbed the pressure brilliantly to cut the deficit to 58 runs at the close of play. Root remained unbeaten on 86 while Malan was on 80 not out, hitting 10 boundaries each in their innings.

Root and Malan’s unbroken 159-run stand for the third wicket took the tourists to 220/2 at stumps on Day 3.

For Australia, captain Pat Cummins (1-43) and Mitchell Starc (1-63) shared one wicket each in the second innings.

For staging England’s comeback in the Test match, Joe Root and Dawid Malan received rich praise from the cricket fraternity on Twitter.

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