Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has questioned England’s choice to select Chris Woakes forward of Mark Wood for the second Ashes Test on the Adelaide Oval.
Woakes claimed a wicket of 23.4 for 103 within the first innings as Australia took cost of the Test, with the house staff seeking to construct on their opening win of the collection in Brisbane.
Ponting stated the inclusion of Woakes over Wood, who performed within the first Test, had a detrimental impact on the affect of England all-rounder Ben Stokes.
“I felt like Stokes was given only one task, running and bowling bouncers after the ball,” Ponting advised cricket.com.au.
“When he lastly obtained an opportunity to bowl to a brand new batsman and pitch the ball, he (Cameron) Green obtained a wicket off the second ball.
“Voakes was ineffective once more – I’m unsure why they even bothered to select him up in Adelaide after they obtained Wood there.
“For me, Wood would have given him a lot of variety in his attack and then Stokes could have pitched it and bowled like a normal seamer, which he is good at, and Wood could have played the role of Stokes.”
Ponting criticized England captain Joe Root and the restricted method of his bowling assault.
“Other than the short-ball plan, Stokes executed Stokes (on the first day), England didn’t have much planning after that,” Ponting stated.
“It went in and was bowled back-of-a-length and waited for the Aussies to make errors.
“Well, when you’re bowling to two of the top three batsmen in the world, they’re not going to make mistakes. You have to find a way to take them out and turn things around.”
Australia reached 473-9 earlier than being declared within the first innings, whereas England have been 17-2 in reply by the top of the second day’s play.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
