England have been playing in the Ashes series where they have already lost the first Test already and continued to struggle in the second. And, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has shared his views on their team selection in the pink-ball Test and also criticised England the approach.
“It looked to me as if (Ben) Stokes was given one job, to run in and bowl bouncers ball after ball,” Ponting told cricket.com.au. “When he finally got the chance to bowl at a new batsman and pitch the ball, he got a wicket second ball to (Cameron) Green.”
“Woakes was ineffective again I’m not sure why they bothered picking him in Adelaide when they’ve got Wood there. To me Wood would have given them a lot more variation in their attack and then Stokes could have pitched it up and bowled like a normal seamer, which he’s good at, and Wood could have taken the role Stokes had,” Ricky Ponting again shared.
England didn’t seem to have much of a plan after that – Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting also criticised the approach England captain Joe Root took in their bowling attack. they chose an all-total pace attack which included five seamers and no spinner as well. But their plan backfired.
“Apart from the short-ball plan Stokes executed (on the first day), England didn’t seem to have much of a plan after that. It was run in and bowl back-of-a-length and wait for the Aussies to make mistakes. Well, when you’re bowling to two of the top three batsmen in the world, they’re not going to make mistakes. You’ve got to find a way to get them out and change things up,” Ricky Ponting concluded.
The visitors stare at yet another defeat as Australia lead by 282 runs with two days of play still left. The hosts are currently well-placed at 43/1.
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