England on the verge of defeat in the third test, Ricky Ponting raised questions on Ben Stokes, told weak techniques of other batsmen
Ponting raised questions on Ben Stokes’ attitude
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes that Ben Stokes is not showing the aggression that used to scare the opposition teams and is showing excessive defensive play in the ongoing Ashes series . Ponting criticized England captain Joe Root , Stokes and Jos Buttler for easily losing wickets in the first innings of the Boxing Day Test . England is 0 -2 behind in the series.
Ponting told ‘cricket.com.au’, ‘Stokes is playing very defensively. That Stokes was not visible, whose aggressive gesture used to scare the opposing teams. He said, ‘The reason for this is understandable. One is the conditions are not conducive for batting and secondly he is facing the best bowlers. Ponting said that Stokes will have to leave the traditional approach to get England out of trouble .
‘English batsmen have to take risks’
He said , ‘ but I think you cannot sit quietly with your hands on your hands . In such a situation, these bowlers will definitely create pressure. When I used to play in the team we often used to say that the better the bowler, the more risk the batsman has to take because no bad ball is going to be found.’ He said that the poor performance of the England batsmen has increased the pressure on Stokes. He said, ‘Coming down to number five, he knows how important it is to score his runs. That’s why he’s putting in extra effort. But it is incomprehensible to send batsmen with weaker technique above him. I think technically Stokes is the second best player after Joe Root.’
England lost 4 wickets in the second innings
In reply to England’s 185, Australia scored 267 runs and took an 82-run lead in the first innings. In reply, England lost four wickets in the second innings for 31 runs. Mitchell Starc caught Jack Crawley for five behind the wicket. David Malan was dismissed in the fifth over without opening the account. Scott Boland, playing the first Test, took two wickets for one run. He sent Haseeb Hameed (7) and Jack Leach (0) to the pavilion. Ben Stokes and Joe Root are at the crease and England still have to score 51 more runs to avoid an innings defeat .
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