Ricky Ponting is calling on Joe Root to ‘step up big time’ and stop looking ‘like a little boy’ if England is to be remotely competitive in this winter’s two remaining Ashes Tests.
Former Australia captain Ponting senses Root is struggling to command the respect a leader needs and suggests that has been demonstrated by some of England’s off-field controversies in a campaign which has fallen flat. He also takes issue with Root and Coach Trevor Bayliss’ insistence that England has been Australia’s equals, or even superiors, at stages of each Test before then failing to sustain that level of performance.
Ponting’s take on three successive big-margin home wins, which mean Australia regained the Ashes with an unassailable 3-0 lead and two matches to spare, is that England have in fact been ‘blown away’.
Root‘s body language in press conferences troubles Ponting most, even more than some of the shots he has got out to.
“The way he answered a lot of the questions after the game last week…seemed almost like a little boy,” he told reporters. “You need to be more than that as a leader, especially when things aren’t going well. Even if it is not natural to you, sometimes you have to put on a different face and stand up for what you think is right and what you believe in – not only inside the dressing room but outside it as well. For me, it just looks like it has been a little bit soft.”
Ponting wonders if Root has been caught out by the extra scrutiny the Ashes bring on a captain.
“Joe seems like he is under the sort of extreme pressure he has never felt before in his career, which is what you would expect in Ashes contests,” he added. “The way he addressed things last week, it just seemed he was really quiet and too shy to really say too much. I think they need him to step up big time.”
“To be honest, I think he has been under pressure right from the start because of things that have been happening off the field. To me, what those things show was a complete lack of respect for him as captain. There is always a bigger picture out there. If you are found out doing the wrong thing, it doesn’t just impact you, it impacts your captain,” Punter concluded.
Fourth Ashes Test will undergo in Melbourne’s MCG on Boxing-Day.
