Ashes: Ponting says ageing England won’t win a game

Ricky Ponting believes England cannot win a game in the Ashes, which begin in Brisbane today, because their best players are too old.

Ricky Ponting and Jordan Spieth during the Australian Open pro-am at The Australian Golf Club yesterday

Ricky Ponting believes England cannot win a game in the Ashes which begin in Brisbane today because their best players are too old.

The former Australian captain said he knows from his own experience that Jimmy Anderson, 35, Stuart Broad, 31, and Alastair Cook, who is almost 33, are past their prime and not the cricketers they once were.

“I’ve been pretty bullish this series. I honestly can’t see England winning a game with this squad of players they’ve got here,” he told The Australian. “The reason I say this is because they’re going to rely on Cook, Anderson and Broad and, as good as those guys have been, they’re not going to improve as cricketers.

“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 was speaking before the news about Shaun Marsh, 34, being in doubt but admitted the Australians was not rock solid in the batting department.

“There’s still some uncertainties around the batting. We’ve got a debutant opener (Cameron Bancroft),” he said. “The other guys have got outstanding records in Australia. I mean David Warner, Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, they’re all averaging over 60. (Peter) Handscomb, ­albeit early in his career, is about the same, averaging over 60.

“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. And they are guys who are on the improve. They’re ­getting better every game.

“It’s great to see Mitchell Starc dominate Shield cricket like he has going into this Test so they’ll be confident. If the batters do a good job against the English bowlers, then it will be fine.”

Ponting, a Tasmanian, admitted he was surprised by the ­inclusion of Tim Paine.

“It was left field,” he said. “But, to be honest, when I saw him picked for Tassie for the last Shield game as a batter, I thought something was brewing. It just didn’t make any sense because they had a young player in Beau Webster down in Tassie that was left out for Paine to play. So sort of reading between the lines there, I thought that it could happen.

“The fact that he got 70-odd in that game is obviously what got him picked but the thing with Paine is, he’s clearly the best wicketkeeper in Australia, has been for 10 years really.

“He’s sometimes harshly marked on his batting because of how good a batsman he looks. So if he gets 20 or 30 for Tasmania, everyone things that’s a failure because he looks like a better player than that. Whereas if you look at a (Peter) Nevill or some of the other keepers in Australia and they get 30 or 40, then they’ve actually done a good job for their team.

“And I think the selectors have identified that, but it’s a gutsy ­decision and let’s hope it’s one that pays off for them.”

Ponting believes the shift to a day-night Test in Adelaide ­increases England’s chances.

“Their best chance of winning a game’s in Adelaide — day-night, pink ball, generally in the last few games there there’s been a bit more grass on the wicket,” he said. “That will suit their seamers down to the ground.”