“I don’t think I’ve seen a worse-performing team in Australia” - Ricky Ponting on England's Ashes performances
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has labeled the current England squad the "worst-performing" team to tour Australia.
Australia regained the Ashes last week off the back of an abysmal second innings total of just 68 for England as Ponting stamped a suite of English batters in their current form as not up to standard for Test cricket.
England's last Test victory in Australia came in 2010/11, when they won the series 3-1. Since then they've been battered 5-0 and 4-0 in 2013/14 and 2017/18 and another 5-0 shellacking is looking imminent in this series.
'Inexcusable!' With the #Ashes on the line, the way three of England's senior players threw away their wickets on Boxing Day had Ricky Ponting heated | @hcltech https://t.co/dgmpwaRswI
Australia and England house markedly different conditions, whether it be climatic, the center wicket or the brand of ball used. Ponting believes a change in England's domestic county strategy, including incorporating the use of the Kookaburra ball, may alter England's fortunes. Speaking to 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. We've been through this in Australia. You wind the clock back a few years ago when we had our struggles in England, we changed conditions, we changed the ball, we changed everything because we were poor in those conditions."
He continued:
"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".
England's batting figures, Joe Root aside, are abysmal. The side recorded 54 ducks in 2021, with extras received also claiming the third highest-run scorer for England this year.
Dawid Malan (308 runs at 34.22 in 2021) is the only batter besides Root who has averaged more than 30 in 2021. This year, Zak Crawley has 173 runs at 10.81, Haseeb Hameed 205 runs at 18.85 and Ollie Pope 368 runs at 21.64. Even Ben Stokes is struggling, registering 304 runs at 21.71.
England's batting lineup, again apart from Root (who is also the leading run-scorer in the 2021/22 Ashes), has been dubbed embarrassing by many onlookers. Joe Root has amassed 1,708 runs at 61 in 2021– the third-most runs scored in a calendar year in Test history.
Ponting believes England's batters are not up to scratch at Test level, with more work needed on the home front in the UK to prepare for tough Test tours. He said:
"Some of the English top-order batters that I've seen in the last couple of tours, without giving names, there's 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 today (at the MCG)."
Ponting was also quick to note the differences between county cricket in England and the Ashes:
"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."
The country's new cricketing strategy, which emerged around six years ago, revolved around white-ball success. The fruits of their travails did bring forth a World Cup victory in 2019. But it seems to have come at the expense of red-ball cricket, with the county scene not preparing players for Test match cricket.
However, Australia have taken a different approach to preparing for the Ashes, with the 2-2 series draw in 2019 a mark of their triumphant and reformed preparations.
Before that series, Australia took a mammoth squad to England and played intra squad matches to become accustomed to the conditions and finalize their Ashes series squad. Ponting also took part in that English tour, which also spanned the World Cup, as an assistant coach.
Previously, batters often churned out first-class averages in the 50s and were not even picked for the Test side during Australia's golden era in the early 2000s under the captaincy of Ponting, but that has changed in recent times.
Cricket Australia (CA) endorsed the use of the Duke Ball in the Sheffield Shield for a handful of matches, and as well re-centered the league as best as possible in conjunction with the Big Bash League in the domestic summer. That was in order to best prepare for Test tours, such as the Ashes in England.
Ricky Ponting rates England's performance in the Ashes as the worst he's seen a team performing in Australia. (To Cricket Australia).
Ricky Ponting won 48 Test matches as captain of Australia from a possible 77 games. He has been a part of 100 Test match victories for Australia.
Ponting has been outspoken in his critique of the touring English side, but many take his words as belonging to one of the most analytical and knowledgeable figures the game has ever seen.