Ricky Ponting has lambasted Joe Root's leadership in the wake of their second Test defeat in Adelaide, suggesting he was not firm enough on strategy with senior players after the England captain revealed his frustration at how his team bowled in the first innings.
The usually mild-mannered Root did not mince his words immediately after Australia completed a 275-run, final-session victory and to take a 2-0 series lead, lamenting that England's bowlers were making the same mistakes as they did during their 0-4 series defeat in 2017-18.
"I don't think we bowled the right lengths," Root said on Monday after the Aussies had piled up 9-473 declared in their first innings of the second Test. "If we're being brutally honest, we needed to bowl fuller.
"As soon as we did in that second innings, we created chances. We need to do that more, we need to be a bit braver, get the ball up there a bit further because when we do, we're going to create chances and make life difficult.
"That's one of the frustrating things because it's something we did four years ago and got it wrong and we didn't learn from it. We made the same mistakes last week (in Brisbane) – we just have to be better and we've got to learn those lessons very quickly."
But Ponting, who led the criticism of England's bowling across the first two days of the Test, told cricket.com.au the buck must stop with Root and suggested he should have issued an ultimatum to his bowlers to bowl fuller or be taken out of the attack.
And while he did not name them, the former Test captain made no bones about his belief that experienced duo Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad in particular needed to be told as much.
"I nearly fell off my seat when I heard that," Ponting said of Root's post-match comments. "Whose job is it then to make them change? Why are you captain then?
"If you can't influence your bowlers on what length to bowl, what are you doing on the field?
"Joe Root can come back and say whatever he likes but if you're captain, you've got to be able to sense when your bowlers aren't bowling where you want them to.
"And if they're not going to listen, you take them off, simple as that.
"Give someone else a chance that is going to do it for you. Or you have a really strong conversation with them on the field to tell them what you need.
"That's what captaincy is all about.
"Regardless of whether they have taken (more than) 1150 wickets between them – well, too bad.
"'I need you to bowl differently here to how you bowl in England, I need you to bowl differently to how you bowled four years ago, and if you're not willing to do it then I'll find someone that can' – that should have been the conversation five overs into day one.
"If they had that (conversation) maybe the result could have been different."
Ponting also suggested the most promising period of England's bowling performance in Adelaide had come when Root was off the field due to a groin knock. Leading in his stead, Ben Stokes oversaw the Aussies lose 3-7 on day four including the prized scalp of Steve Smith for six.
"The interesting thing for me is the only time they bowled full in the game was when Joe Root wasn't on the ground," he said.
"The start of day four when they had a meeting on the ground before play started, Ben Stokes took over the captaincy, and that was the only time in the game they pitched the ball up."
For Australia, selection questions going into the third Test in Melbourne revolve around the spot of Marcus Harris and whether Jhye Richardson, who bowled Australia to victory on day five in claiming his maiden Test five-wicket haul, can hold his spot with the looming returns of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
Ponting has backed Harris to remain in the side, while he sees Richardson as being the unlucky man out if all three of Cummins, Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc are fit.
England's selection issues run deeper.
Batters Rory Burns (51 runs at 12.75), Haseeb Hameed (58 runs at 14.50) and Ollie Pope (48 runs at 12.00) have all been ineffectual in the series so far, with Ponting calling for Burns to be dropped and Dawid Malan, England's leading run scorer in the two Tests so far, to open.
He sees Zac Crawley as the logical replacement in Malan's No.3 spot, while he believes wicketkeeper-batter Jonny Bairstow is a better option than Pope at the No.6 position.
In terms of the bowling, Ponting suggested Chris Woakes should make way and that only one of Anderson and Broad should play at the MCG with Mark Wood expected to return.
He also reiterated his belief England had blundered by not picking a specialist spinner in Adelaide, taking aim at the visitors' bowling coach Jon Lewis, who said on Sunday: "In hindsight, you might say we could have picked a different side but at the time we felt like we picked the team that would win the game."
"They've got some real selection dramas I think - every message that they've sent so far has seemed like a confused one," said Ponting.
"Even their bowling coach last night said that in hindsight 'we (might have) picked the wrong team'. Well I think we all knew you picked the wrong team before the game started, I'm not sure what the hindsight thing is.
"Everyone saw this before the game started, everyone saw what the result would be in Brisbane with the team they picked up there (without Broad or Anderson in the team).
"What they're trying at the moment just isn't working."
Ponting picks apart England's batting woes: HCL Vantage point
Rory Burns doesn't rely on a rock-solid technique, he's got his own methods. I think he's fighting some real demons against the ball that's leaving him, Mitchell Starc angling in and getting ball to go away ... and he's tried to avoid facing the first ball of the innings. His feet are moving a lot more than he thinks they are. He's getting so far across his stumps and locking himself off that he is finding it really hard to score runs on the off-side and down the ground. I'd be surprised if he stayed in (for Boxing Day) to be honest. He just looks all at sea, even playing Nathan Lyon.
Haseeb Hameed, for an opening batsman, doesn't know what to play and what to leave. His dismissals have clearly been balls, that if he'd been more decisive with his decision-making and his footwork ... he didn't need to be playing at them. He's playing a defensive shot to those balls, when you're looking to defend balls on a fifth-stump (line) and a forward defence length, it's just a recipe for disaster.
Ollie Pope has just seemed in rush. Another one who didn't need to be playing at that ball (which dismissed him) on length or on line. I know he fought hard in the first innings in Brisbane but against really good quality bowling on a wicket that's got anything in it, I think he's going to struggle.
https://www.cricket.com.au/news/ric...lers-broad-anderson-adelaide-ashes/2021-12-21
