Ashes 2021-22: Ben Stokes Hasn’t Looked Physically Aggressive That Opposition Team Feared To Bowl To: Ricky Ponting

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting criticised England all-rounder Ben Stokes for adapting too much defensive batting against Australia in the ongoing Ashes 2021-22.

Stokes came to the Ashes after nearly a five-month hiatus as he was concentrating on his mental health issues and had taken an indefinite break from the game.

Since he has returned to international cricket, his scores in the series so far read 5, 14, 34, 12, 25 and 2*.

Ben Stokes looked ultra-defensive: Ricky Ponting

Ahead of the series, many England supporters, and even their skipper Joe Root too, thought the squad was bolstered after the star all-rounder’s return to Ashes side.

Ponting feels Stokes isn’t the player that opposition bowlers would fear to bowl him and

“He’s looked ultra-defensive. He hasn’t looked like the big, physically aggressive presence at the crease that opposition teams have feared to bowl to in other series,” Ponting told ‘cricket.com.au’.

“You can understand why – the batting conditions haven’t been easy in any game and he’s coming up against some good bowlers,” he added.

Ponting feels that Stokes need to set his plan and find a way to attack the good bowlers while taking his chances with a calculative risk.

“But I think if you just sit back and wait, and don’t put pressure on great bowlers, they’re going to get you out. We always used to say in teams that I played in that the better the bowler, the more risks you had to take as a batter, because you simply don’t get bad balls,” Ponting mentioned.

“You have got to find a way to jump on anything that’s a little bit bad, rotate the strike as much as you can,” he added.

You can’t keep pushing Ben Stokes down the batting order: Ricky Ponting

England replaced Kent batter, Zak Crawley, with Rory Burns in the opening slot coming into the Boxing Day Test match.

Malan bats at no.3 followed by Root and Stokes at 4 & 5 batting positions respectively. Ponting reckoned that Stokes is the second-best batter in the England team after Root and wants him to bat up the order.

“He’s probably going into the game knowing that it’s so important that he scores runs in that number five slot that he might be trying a little bit too hard,” Ponting said.

“The bottom line with it is that technically he might be their second-best player, so you can’t keep pushing him down the list when you’re batting guys with inferior techniques ahead of him,” he added.

England were left in tatters on the second day after Australian bowlers led by Mitchell Starc reduced them to 31 for four. The visitors still hold a 51-run deficit to Australia’s first innings lead.

Root (9*) and Stokes (2*) are currently batting for England and the duo needs to build a crucial partnership to turn the game in their team’s favour.

Also Read: Ashes 2021-22: Ben Stokes’ Water Distraction Antics Breaks Mark Wood’s Concentration, The Pacer Yells “Pack It In, Man”