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Australian great Ricky Ponting has called for under-pressure England captain Joe Root to stand down for the role, believing the team’s horror Ashes tour has marked his cards in the top job.
Root has held the reins since Alastair Cook resigned in February 2017. Not England captain has had more than his 60 Tests at the helm, while his 27 victories are also the national record.
However, a second Ashes drubbing in Australia, following England’s 4-0 loss in 2017-18, has prompted Ponting to urge Root to finish his career as a batter only, with Ben Stokes to take the captaincy.
“I think it is time,” Ponting told Seven Cricket during a commentary stint.
“Four or five years in the job, having been there and done it myself, and with what they’ve done the last couple of years, I think it’s time for him to move on and give with someone else.
“That has to be Ben Stokes.”
Ponting himself led Australia in 77 Tests between 2004 and 2010, with his 48 wins behind only long-serving South Africa captain Graeme Smith (53).
(Photo by Darrian Traynor – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
However, he too paid the price for Ashes failure, having skippered the 2005 and 2009 losing teams in England, before the humbling 2010-11 series defeat was the final straw.
Root’s captaincy has come under fire throughout the series, with several Australian greats, including another former captain in Ian Chappell, blasting his leadership.
Chappell described Root as ‘an excellent batter but a poor captain’ following England’s defeat in the second Test in Adelaide; just days earlier, Ponting had savaged Root for being unable to manage veteran bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
Root admitted to being unable to convince the pair to bowl a fuller length in that Test, a revelation that Ponting ‘nearly fell off my seat’ to hear.
“Whose job is it then to make them change? Why are you captain then?” he said.
“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.”
At only 31, Root is barely five months older than Stokes, but England’s packed recent schedule means he has played 113 Tests already.
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