Ricky Ponting says England won’t win a game this Ashes series
FORMER Test skipper Ricky Ponting has joined the chorus of sledges being directed towards England a day out from Ashes hostilities resuming. Get the aloe vera, this is one heck of a burn.
Cricket
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cricket. Followed categories will be added to My News.
FORMER Test skipper Ricky Ponting has sledged England’s star players a​s​ too old and believes Australia will rout the Poms for a second consecutive Ashes whitewash on home soil.
“I honestly can’t see England winning a game with this squad of players they’ve got here,” Ponting said.
A war of words has exploded ahead of the Ashes’ opening delivery on Thursday morning in Brisbane and Ponting lobbed a few grenades after playing in a pro-am at the Australian Open with star US golfer Jordan Spieth.
Ponting said he’d been “bullish” for some time about Australia winning the series comfortably but upgraded his forecast into Glenn McGrath, five-nil territory after looking at the age profile of England’s team.
Joe Root says Nathan Lyon’s pre-Ashes sledging was out of character
“They’re going to rely on (Alistair) Cook, (Jimmy) Anderson and (Stuart) Broad and, as good as those guys have been, they’re not going to improve as cricketers,” Ponting said.
“I’ve been there myself. When you get to a certain age and you’ve played a lot of cricket, you try and maintain and hang on but you’re never going to get better.
“You even look at Cook’s last few years and his overall record in Australia, it’s not that great.
“And they’ve got (James) Vince and (Dawid) Malan and (Mark) Stoneman and these guys playing their first Ashes series, I think they’re going to find it pretty tough.”
Ponting said the only chance England have of competing in the five-Test series is in Adelaide in the second Test on a seam-friendly deck.
In 2013-14, Mitchell Johnson’s terrorising form with the ball dominated in Adelaide too and those mental scars have been an aggravating topic this week.
While Johnson is now retired, Ponting said the current Australian bowling attack remains world class and is equally capable of being dominant.
LISTEN! With the Ashes battle set to commence, we dissect the teams both on the field and in the commentary boxes and The Sun’s chief cricket writer John Etheridge gives his take on upcoming hostilities.
“I can’t see any vulnerabilities with our bowling whatsoever. Those three quicks that we’ve picked plus Nathan Lyon is just about as good as any attack going around in world cricket at the moment,” Ponting said.
“And they are guys who are on the improve. They’re getting better every game.
“It’s great to see Starc dominate Shield cricket like he has going into this Test so they’ll be confident.”
It can get lost under the memory of Johnson’s 37 wickets that Australia scored 10 centuries in their 5-0 win in the last home series. Ponting said there if there are any question marks about Australia it is with the bat.
“There’s still some uncertainties around the batting. We’ve got a debutant opener,” he said.
“But the other guys have got outstanding records in Australia. I mean Warner, Smith, Khawaja, they’re all averaging over 60. Handscombe, albeit early in his career, is about the same, averaging over 60.”
Ponting said the selection of Tim Paine was “left-field” but said the Tasmanian keeper had been the best gloveman in Australia “for the last ten years” and was often judged harder with the bat than rival wicketkeepers because he is such a quality batsman.
Speaking prior to England captain Joe Root, Ponting had a similar take on mild-mannered Nathan Lyon sparking an Ashes war of words by saying former England keeper Matt Prior wanted to fly home instead of face Johnson in 2013-14.
“Someone’s put him up to it,” Ponting said.
When asked if England were being touchy, Ponting said: “They’ll think just because it’s coming from Nathan. If it’s coming from Starcy or Pat Cummins then it probably would have been okay.¶
“And, look, it’s still okay. This happens every Ashes series. It’s nothing new. All this sort of banter starts.¶
“I believe that the boys have been watching videos of the series before with Mitch Johnson terrorising their tail and what have you, so there’s obviously fresh in their mind for them.¶
“Who knows, it could have even been a deliberate thing to throw it out and see what sort of reaction.”
Ponting said Ben Stokes playing “would be great for the series” but he had no idea if the England bad boy will lace on his spikes.
“Everybody wants to see him play. He’s one of the outstanding players in world cricket,” he said.
“But we’ll wait and see what the investigation brings.”
Originally published as Ricky Ponting says England won’t win a game this Ashes series
Kuhnemann undergoes secret action testing, set to learn fate
Matt Kuhnemann has been put through his paces by the International Cricket Council’s biomechanics team in a secret testing session. Full details on what it means for his future inside.
Konstas gets message to tone it down
Eyebrows were raised after a wild Sam Konstas SCG effort on Tuesday, but given a second chance to bat he went a different way, albeit with a similar result.