Former Australian captain and commentator Ricky Ponting has slammed the current England team for their poor performance in the first three Tests of the ongoing Ashes 2021–22 series against Australia.
Following a 9-wicket and 275-run defeats in the first two Tests in Brisbane and Adelaide respectively, England suffered another heavy defeat by an innings and 14 runs in the third Test at the MCG on Tuesday (December 28), falling 0-3 in the ongoing Ashes series.
Australia has now regained the Ashes against England, having gained an unassailable 3-0 lead in the ongoing five-match Test series, with the fourth Test to be played from January 5 in Sydney, followed by the fifth and final Test in Hobart from January 14.
As reported by cricket.com.au, Ponting said: “I don't think I've seen a worse-performing team in Australia than what I've seen over the last three games. England might need to have a look at how they can make their conditions more suitable to ours. They play well in England still but they don't play well when they come here - so maybe they play more with the Kookaburra ball.”
He added, “Maybe they flatten the wickets out a little bit so there's not as much swing and seam, so the batters are making bigger scores and batting for longer periods of time. It might be the exact same blip that (Australia) had to have three or four years ago.”
England was bowled out for 68 in the second innings of the Boxing Day Test, and Ponting believes that the batters lacked some test techniques, which resulted in the batting collapse at the MCG.
The former skipper further added, “Some of the English top-order batters that I've seen in the last couple of tours, without giving names, there are some techniques there that I just know are not going to stand up at Test level. In challenging conditions and world-class bowlers up against sub-standard techniques, then you get what happened at the MCG.”
He signed off by saying, “The little swing dibbly-dobblers that are getting them out over there (in county cricket), they're not facing that at Test level. They're facing guys who can actually bowl. What I've seen with their batting, they're just simply not good enough.”
(With ANI Inputs)
