Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting responded to Jofra Archer's verbal altercation with Australian captain Steve Smith during the second Ashes Test by saying the England bowler disgraced himself by failing to produce the pace and aggressiveness when it was most needed earlier in the game.  

On Day 4 of the day-night test, Archer blasted down a blistering short ball to Smith, who hit it to the boundary with an amazing pull shot.

The next delivery was also short, and Smith attempted to raise it over the slip cordon, eliciting a reaction from Archer, who fired a few verbal insults at the Australian captain.

Archer was picked up on the stump mic, saying, "Likes to play shots when there's not much on the scoreboard." It lit a fuse under Smith, who returned serve, the stump microphone picking up the exchange. “You bowl fast when there's nothing going on, champion,” Smith said.

Ponting, who was in the commentary box during the match, opined that Archer had "embarrassed himself" and the team.

“When I ‘championed' him, I could actually hear what Steve Smith had said to him in the stump mic. Smithy said "champion," and then that's just what came out of my mouth, but it just got me going and got the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. There haven't been many games that I've commentated that I wish I were back playing again. But I wish I was out there the other night as part of that, because that's what you miss, and that's what it's all about," Ponting told SEN.

"But look, for Jofra, he just embarrassed himself, and he embarrassed his team the other night; that's what I make of that. To bowl his fastest spell ever in Test cricket, when Australia's chasing 60… it (the fast spell) has been there the whole time, it's been up his sleeve, and England has needed him to do it, and he hasn't been willing to do it,” Ponting added.

Ponting also took a dig at Jofra Archer for his below-par performance on day three of the second Test in Brisbane.

"Day 3, when they needed him to do it, he rocks up with his pillow under his arm, and that was always going to be a bad day for England from that moment. As soon as anyone saw that it was going to be ‘Okay, there's their mindset for the day. They're just going to rock up, and Australia's going to fall over, and we'll bowl them out. Well, that doesn't happen against Australia; it doesn't happen in Ashes cricket," he added.

The third test of the ongoing Ashes 2025-26 will be played in Adelaide on December 17.

(IANS inputs)