Legendary former Test captain Ricky Ponting has called for Ben Stokes to move up the batting order for England as question marks remain over the form of Ollie Pope.
Pope, who bats at No.3, after failing to reach 50 in his four innings this series. He averages 18.71 in Australia across 14 innings.
England’s ex skipper Michael Vaughan also urged the tourists to make a change at the top of the order after Brisbane, with Jacob Bethell viewed as the next man up in place of Pope. But Bethell has hardly been banging the door down recently.
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He is yet to score a maiden first-class century across 25 matches and has scores of 3, 70, 44, 16, 19 and 71 on tour.
After making pointed remarks about his players after the eight-wicket loss at the Gabba, Ponting believes Stokes’ next step must be to move up higher in the order.
“You know, the more I have thought about it…if Stokes can play that way, and he is the one that does identify situations better than others, than batting at six is too low for him,” Ponting said on SEN Radio.
“I think he should be batting at No.3. He should be out there puffing the chest out as the captain and saying, ‘OK, I am going to stop this rot before it happens.
“I don’t want to be walking in when we’ve lost four quick wickets, I am going to do something about it.’ You can imagine him and Joe Root playing that way.”
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting. Alex Davidson via Getty Images
While several England batters have struggled for runs in Australia, coach Brendan McCullum said wholesale changes to the line-up for Adelaide were highly unlikely.
“We’ve had a top seven now for a period of time, and we’ve been reasonably successful with it,” he said.
“We know we haven’t got enough runs so far in the series … but for us to go on and win the series, it’s not about throwing out what’s been successful.
“It’s about having more conviction. It’s about making sure that we have our plans and our disciplines around it. Just screw it down a touch more. Knee-jerk reactions and chopping and changing settled batting line-ups is not really our thing.”
England’s fightback to draw the last Ashes series 2-2 is a useful reminder to Australia that they cannot afford to take their foot off the gas with a 2-0 lead this time around, Cameron Green said on Sunday.
Australia go into the third Test, which starts in Adelaide on Wednesday, firmly in control of the five-match series.
Ben Stokes has plenty on his shoulders. Getty
The memories of 2023 in England, when the hosts came back from a 2-0 deficit to level the series, were a cautionary tale for Green, however, as Australia look to lock up series honours with two matches to spare.
“That’s a really good reminder for our team,” the all-rounder told reporters at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
“It’s a good reminder for us to stay really level. I think you can at times look a bit far ahead, but that’s a great reminder for us to stay as good as we can be and finish it off.”
Former Australia paceman Mitchell Johnson wrote on the weekend that England could avoid a 5-0 series sweep but they would need to change their mindset to do so.
Green, though, does not expect England to change their aggressive approach to batting even with the series on the line, regardless of what kind of wicket or weather Adelaide serves up.
“I think they’ve been really consistent the last three years with how they want to go about it, so I don’t think conditions or heat really changed that,” he said.
“I always think that the heat probably plays into our hands a little bit better. I think it’s the same for when we go over to England, it’s really cold.”
– with Reuters