Ricky Ponting's truth bomb for England over claims of 'unjust' Ashes result
The Aussie cricket great says England should look at their own Ashes shortcomings rather than blaming the rain.
England can complain about the rain wrecking their chances of winning back the Ashes, but Ricky Ponting says the hosts' shortcomings earlier in the series have just as much to do with it. Incessant rain washed away the entire fifth and final day at Old Trafford as the fourth Test ended in a draw that was enough to see Australia retain the famous urn, with one Test remaining.
It wasn't the way Pat Cummins' Aussie side wanted to keep hold of the Ashes and certainly not a fitting way to decide the outcome of one of the most exciting series in recent memory. England captain Ben Stokes - criticised for not declaring earlier as England piled on 592 runs in the first innings - was among those to express his disappointment that rain had ruined the contest.
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Stokes appeared to claim a moral victory by insisting his side would leave a "legacy" as "one of the most exciting and proactive teams" to represent the country, while former England captain Michael Vaughan lauded the hosts as the better side over the first four Tests. Stuart Broad even wrote after day four that it would be "unjust" if rain denied England a series-levelling win in the fourth Test.
Such is the nature of Test cricket though, and Ponting suggested England should look at their own failings from earlier in the series, rather than blaming the weather. The Aussie great said there were several key moments England got wrong, starting with Stokes' first innings declaration in the first Test at Edgbaston - when Joe Root was unbeaten on 118.
“I think they will regret the fact that they declared,” Ponting said on Sky Sports. “I think they’ll regret how hard they went with the bat in the second innings.
“A 280-run lead having been bowled out in the second innings, I think if you had’ve asked straight after losing the toss, you’re going to be happy chasing 280. I would’ve taken that.”
Ricky Ponting says England failed to rein 'Bazball' in
Ponting also pointed to England's blind commitment to 'Bazball' and throwing away a position of dominance in the second Test at Lord's with aggressive but ultimately reckless batting. England went from 1-188 in their first innings to be bowled out for 325 - losing their last five wickets for 47 runs after some questionable shot-making from their batters, in response to Australia's short-ball barrage.
“I said right from the start, if they want to play that way, that brand of cricket and they’ve talked about it so much, they sort of back themselves into a corner where they’ve got to play that way,” Ponting said. “And when that tactic started, they were in complete control of the game at that point, the batting looked good, they were scoring quickly, and then the loss of those four or five wickets in a short amount of time, turned that (Lord’s) Test match on its head.
“I don’t think they identified quickly enough that they didn’t need to play that way right there. With this approach I think there’s a time and a place against the very best Test teams to be able to play that way.
“I don’t think they’re going to be able to do it all the time, and I think the fact that they went as hard as they did in the second innings at Edgbaston and then probably losing those wickets to the short ball at Lord’s were the reason that they found themselves 2-0 down after the first two games.”
As he has been the case throughout the series, Stokes was defiant when asked whether he regretted some of the potentially series-defining calls in the first two Tests. “No,” a bullish Stokes said after the fourth Test.
“You can’t change what’s happened in the past,” he later said on the BBC. “A lot of things can always be said about stuff that’s already happened, that’s just theoretical things, you can’t change the decision that you’ve made, I’ll always back decisions that I take because I know it’s the right decision to try and force a result and what I think is at the given time. Sometimes it doesn’t work out the way you want it to, but I’m never going to look back and question anything that we did.”
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