The Ashes 2023

Ricky Ponting says England bowler has not ‘looked dangerous’ so far in the Ashes series

The Ashes 2o23 has been very delightful to watch so far. The first Test was an absolute thriller that unfolded at Edgbaston where Australia got the better of England by 2 wickets.  One of the incidents that was remembered from the first Test was the big confrontation between Usman Khawaja and Olie Robinson. After the incident happened, many former Australian cricketers went after him and said he should consider himself lucky to play in an Ashes series.

Now Ricky Ponting has joined the bandwagon and said that Robinson has not looked threatening so far in the Ashes. He highlighted the same in an interview for the Cricket Governing Body. “I don’t think he’s looked dangerous in the series at all. I mean, if you look at the wickets, he’s got the tailenders out in each game. Yes he got Marnus (Labuschagne) in this innings here. But then he got (Nathan) Lyon and then he got (Josh) Hazlewood. So if he didn’t get the 10 and 11 out, then he finishes his innings with one wicket at over four runs an over.”

The whole thing has been blown out of proportion  – Ricky Ponting

“He’s a very skilful bowler, no doubt about that, and no one would’ve said a word about Ollie Robinson if he hadn’t have sort of instigated this whole tit-for-tat that’s been happening over the last couple of weeks. And to be honest, I think the whole thing’s been blown completely out of proportion. Ponting added.  It’s something that’s everyone’s enjoyed talking about, and some of the ex-players have enjoyed hopping in and having a bit of a crack, but at the end of the day he’s a skilled bowler and, as you say, his numbers so far in the series are actually okay,”

Taking about tactics in the second Test, Ponting said that England went with four pacers and took the spinner out as he believed their is no good spinner in England currently. “As it turned out, Joe Root got two wickets in the first innings anyway, and to be honest I think that the obvious reason that they haven’t (picked a spinner) is they think they haven’t got one good enough to come in and play Test cricket,” He further said.