Former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting heaped praise on England captain Ben Stokes for a blistering knock in the second test of the Ashes series as he compared him with Indian great MS Dhoni over his ability to finish the game, especially being the captain of the team.
Ben Stokes batted brilliantly in the 2nd innings playing a counter-attacking knock on the final day to help his side reach closer to the massive target of 371 runs, as he took on the Australian pacers at ease hitting 9 fours and 9 sixes in his innings of 155(214) showing a glimpse of his innings 2019 Ashes in Headingley.
Speaking on the ICC Review, Ricky Ponting hailed the English skipper for his batting in the second test, as he revealed that everyone would have thought he would have pulled off another win in the Lord’s just like Headingley, especially after Steve Smith dropped him in Lord’s just like Marcus Harris dropping in 2019 Ashes series.
“I thought and everyone probably thought he could do it again because we’ve seen it happen before, but this was probably, slightly more runs that they were chasing (in 2019),” he added.
“In the back of the back of everyone’s minds, I think once it started playing out the way that it was and how many similarities there were to Headingley in 2019…Steve Smith dropped him…and he was dropped on 116 by Marcus Harris at Headingley, So those sort of ghosts of the past kept coming back out,” Ricky Ponting said.
Ben Stokes played one of the finest Test knocks when he scored an unbeaten 135 in the third Ashes Test of 2019. Chasing 359 for the win, the England team struggled at 286-9, as the English all-rounder played a sensational knock alongside Jack Leach to register a memorable victory on their home soil, which not only secured the victory but also levelled the Ashes series at 1-1.
One That Comes To Mind Is Maybe Someone Like MS Dhoni – Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting feels that any cricketer who walks out to bat in the middle finds themselves under pressure and believes that Ben Stokes find himself in a match-winning situation than other players and compared him to legendary Indian skipper MS Dhoni, where he finished games for India in white-ball formats and added that they are not many players find themselves in this situations.
“I think any international player is under pressure anytime they walk out to play, but Ben batting in the middle order or later order as he does, probably finds himself in more match-winning opportunity situations than some others might,” he said.
“The first one that comes to mind is maybe someone like a Dhoni, who’s there at the end in a lot of T20 games, and finishing games, whereas Ben’s doing it at the end of Test matches, and there’s not, probably not many, many players through the history of the game that have found themselves in that sort of role and are there at the end winning games, and especially as a captain,” Ricky Ponting concluded.
Ben Stokes has established himself as one of the modern-day greats of the game and has been a revelation for the nation since the 2019 World Cup for England and took over Test captaincy for Joe Root and also played a huge role in England’s T20 World Cup title win.