The Daily Telegraph - Sport

Grow up Ponting tells Root to stop acting like a little boy

Legend tells captain he needs to toughen up Stokes heads home after spell with Canterbury

- By Nick Hoult CRICKET NEWS CORRESPOND­ENT in Melbourne

Ricky Ponting has advised Joe Root to stop acting like a “little boy” and to toughen up by admitting his team have been outplayed in the Ashes series.

Ponting, who lost three Ashes series as Australia captain and was always straight-talking on the subject of his teams’ shortfalls, believes Root is worrying too much about upsetting his players by making excuses for their poor performanc­es.

But he also said Root had been let down by players showing a “complete lack of respect” for the captain with their off-field behaviour, leading to him playing poor shots as the pressure has mounted.

Ponting, who captained Australia to a 5-0 win in 2006-7, the first Ashes whitewash for more than 80 years, is a fan of Root’s batting and likes his attacking captaincy, but thinks he has to be more ruthless.

“Joe seems like he is under the sort of extreme pressure that he has never felt before, which is what you would expect in an Ashes contest,” Ponting said. “Everything about it is more intense than anything else you play. Even how he is addressing the media – I know he is not [naturally] too forthright, but the way he answered a lot of the questions after the game last week, and almost the Brisbane game as well, he seemed almost like a little boy. You need to be more than that as a leader, especially when things aren’t going well.”

Root played a poor shot, driving at a wide ball from Nathan Lyon, in the second innings in Perth, where the enormity of losing the Ashes appeared to weigh on him after two long days in the field while Steve Smith batted Australia to victory. It came after England’s preparatio­ns for the third Test were overshadow­ed by more apologies for offfield behaviour after Lions player Ben Duckett threw a drink over James Anderson in a bar.

“To be honest, I think he has been under pressure right from the start because of things that have been happening off the field,” said Ponting. “To me, what those things show was a complete lack of respect for him as captain.

“And, to me, he just looks like he was under pressure before the first ball was bowled. It looks as though something is playing on his mind. In the first innings in Adelaide and second in Perth. They are not the sorts of shots you would expect from one of the best players in the world. And not someone who is trying to lead from the front. They seemed pretty lazy, pressure shots.”

Root has been reluctant to criticise his players, and Trevor Bayliss, the head coach, would prefer to be a lightning rod for criticism rather than point the finger in public at individual­s. But, with the Ashes gone, and key men out of form, Ponting is saying the team environmen­t is too comfortabl­e. “They keep talking about how good they have been and how competitiv­e. I am not seeing that at all,” he said. “They have played cricket that is trying to sneak ahead in the game.

“When you consider they have won all three tosses, lost by 10 wickets in Brisbane, everything that could have gone their way in Adelaide went their way and they lost by 120-odd runs and then an innings and 40 runs in the next Test. They have been completely blown away and blown off the park. Unless you can find some drastic ways to get better, I’m not sure how they are going to improve.

“I knew there were a few players who might find it difficult in this series. Obviously, Broad, Cook and Anderson I thought would struggle the most. Cook has had his fair share of struggles. Anderson has been good on a couple of occasions but otherwise has lacked penetratio­n, and Broad has been the same. They haven’t had the impact that their team needed them to have.”

Tom Curran or Mason Crane are

on the verge of a debut in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Craig Overton is struggling due to a fractured rib, leaving England to choose between picking another seamer or the young leg-spinner so Moeen Ali can focus on his batting.

Curran appears more likely to be handed a cap as a seam bowler but would be another right-arm-over medium-fast bowler, the type which has struggled to make an impression on flat Australian pitches. Crane, who threatens both edges of the bat as a leg-spinner, offers variation but is very raw. Jake Ball is the other option.

Meanwhile, Ben Stokes is to return to the UK “for family reasons” following a month-long spell with New Zealand side Canterbury. Stokes was dropped from England’s Ashes Test tour after he was arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm in Bristol on September 25. The Crown Prosecutio­n Service is assessing evidence from Avon and Somerset Police in order for a decision to be made on whether he should face charges over the alleged incident.

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 ??  ?? Outspoken: Ricky Ponting is a critic of England’s play
Outspoken: Ricky Ponting is a critic of England’s play
 ??  ?? Ashen-faced: Joe Root looks dejected as the series is lost
Ashen-faced: Joe Root looks dejected as the series is lost

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