{"id":294585,"date":"2025-11-19T10:02:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T10:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/294585\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T10:02:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T10:02:17","slug":"ricky-ponting-says-england-not-being-honest-with-themselves-ahead-of-blockbuster-ashes-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/294585\/","title":{"rendered":"Ricky Ponting says England \u2018not being honest\u2019 with themselves ahead of blockbuster Ashes series"},"content":{"rendered":"

England won\u2019t die wondering in the Ashes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing of which we can be certain this summer, it\u2019s that.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Ricky Ponting backs Australia in Ashes opener.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Brendon McCullum\u2019s Bazballers have arrived on Australian shores with the notorious reputation as arguably the most aggressive and unique team in English Test<\/a> history.<\/p>\n

They will attempt to score at blinding run-rates with unconventional shots in obscure parts of the ground, as they have since McCullum\u2019s appointment as coach in 2022.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s yielded middling results for them with patches of fleeting dominance \u2014 but they\u2019re consistent with it, if nothing else.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s indoctrination to play that way under the leadership axis of McCullum and captain Ben Stokes has been a three-year journey whose destination climax is these next six weeks in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a side that have been together for two years (since the 2023 Ashes) building up to this,\u201d Ricky Ponting told 7NEWS.<\/p>\n

\u201cBazball, as far as I\u2019m concerned \u2014 and I know Brendon reasonably well \u2014 was only designed for this one series.<\/p>\n

\u201cForget about everything that\u2019s happened over the past two years, it was all about having a group together and a style of play that can stand up and win Test matches in Australia.<\/p>\n

\"BenBen Stokes and Brendon McCullum\u2019s Bazball era faces the ultimate test in the Ashes. Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve only done it (won a Test) four times in the past 25 years, and they\u2019re going to need to do it at least three times this summer, so I can\u2019t wait to see how they play.\u201d<\/p>\n

When McCullum first took over in 2022, the aggressive shift in England\u2019s tactics was bordering on reckless.<\/p>\n

Since the new game style failed to deliver an Ashes series victory at home in 2023, a marginal layer of caution has been added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s slightly changed a bit,\u201d Ponting said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn its inception, it was a lot more reckless than it is now. I think now they\u2019re identifying moments better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Joe Root is taking it on as much as he did, I don\u2019t think Ben Stokes is taking the whole Bazball thing as much as he probably once did at the start of it \u2014 but their openers do. And Ollie Pope tries to as well. That\u2019s why I think their openers are so important to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia famously started the first Test in 2023 at Edgbaston match with a deep backward point, and Zak Crawley still cracked the first ball through cover for four. If ever there was a motif for the enthralling series that would unfold between two different cricketing ideologies, that was it.<\/p>\n

Ponting says he expects nothing different in terms of England\u2019s attitude this time around.<\/p>\n

\"OpenerOpener Zak Crawley made a polished 82 in England’s Ashes warm-up match in Perth. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019ll change. I\u2019ve seen enough of them over the past two years to know that they\u2019re going to play the same way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen Duckett and Zak Crawley are going to play the same way that they\u2019ve always played.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they can, England, what they do, they win the toss and bowl, and back themselves to get more runs in the fourth innings of the game than what the opposition team gets in the first innings of the game. That\u2019s not going to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when you talk about Bazball and the style of play as much as they have over the past couple of years, you can\u2019t all of a sudden just not do it. You\u2019ve got to continue to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s one area Australia can sort of target them a little bit. Knowing that they\u2019ve got to come ultra-aggressive, you can set different fields and use different tactics to make them and their egos come to you during a Test match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ponting\u2019s longtime teammate Glenn McGrath last week told 7NEWS.com.au he likes \u201cthe concept of Bazball\u201d, but slammed the self-absorbed off-field<\/a> hubris that has evidently come with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only other issue with that is the people talking up Bazball and their performances are themselves, which is rubbish,\u201d McGrath said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not up to the current players to judge how they\u2019re going; \u2018Oh, we\u2019re setting a new standard in the game, oh we\u2019re so entertaining\u2019 \u2014 that\u2019s all bulls***.<\/p>\n

\"RickyRicky Ponting has questioned England\u2019s attitude ahead of the Ashes. Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

Ponting says the English team\u2019s rhetoric about themselves sounds to him like a defence mechanism.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the stuff they say in the media is deflecting any negativity that comes their way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like they\u2019re trying to put up a forcefield between themselves and their record as a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole thing, \u2018Oh, we don\u2019t care if we lose\u2019 \u2014 that\u2019s just rubbish. You don\u2019t play not caring if you win or lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat for me is almost like a barrier that they\u2019re trying to create to keep any negativity away from that playing group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the style of play that they\u2019re trying to come up with, any negativity that comes back on them could potentially change the way they play, so it\u2019s almost like this barrier\u2019s being set up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAshes series, you can talk as much as you want, you can say whatever you want, but it\u2019s all about how you handle things once it starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RickyRicky Ponting was one of Australia\u2019s most successful captains ever. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

Comparing it with the champion teams that both he and McGrath starred in during the late 1990s and 2000s, Ponting said it\u2019s frankly a dishonest attitude that wouldn\u2019t fly in their successful dressing rooms of the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just honest with ourselves, honest with one another \u2014 they\u2019re not being that,\u201d the former Aussie skipper said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone makes mistakes and you lose some games sometimes because you\u2019re not good enough and you\u2019ve made the wrong choices at different times in games. I don\u2019t see what\u2019s wrong with talking about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think probably inside the dressing room they would be talking that way, but when they\u2019re in the public, they\u2019re not talking that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, I think that\u2019s just trying to stop all the negative headlines coming back on top of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll get bowled out for 100 one day and they\u2019ll say, \u2018We\u2019re going to go even harder again tomorrow\u2019. Rightio, let\u2019s see it then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RickyRicky Ponting and Aaron Finch return to lead Channel 7\u2019s coverage. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

Ponting will be joined in Channel 7\u2019s commentary box by England villain Stuart Broad, who last month declared it as \u201cfact\u201d that Australia\u2019s current team is their worst since 2010\/11.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a bit of niggle. There\u2019s a bit of niggle on-air, and there\u2019s even more niggle when we\u2019re off-air at the back of the box on certain things,\u201d Ponting said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really funny how the English get the perception of how hard the Australian media make it on them when they get here, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen a country\u2019s media make it as hard as they do for the Australian team when they get to England.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he\u2019s a ripper, he\u2019s a really good guy. He\u2019ll have a bit of a chip on his shoulder, but he\u2019s going to have a whole lot of Aussies around him to pull him back into line pretty quickly in the back of the commentary box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch the Ashes series live and free on Seven and 7plus Sport<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stuart Broad nervous for \u2018awkward\u2019 Ashes reunion with Aussie rival<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Australian cricket great shreds England\u2019s self-absorbed \u2018rubbish\u2019<\/p>\n

6 min read<\/p>\n

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