Legendary Australian skipper Ricky Ponting feels that England team management should consider playing their skipper Ben Stokes in the number three position in the crucial fourth test of the Ashes series as he got the great technical ability to play with the new ball in the absence of Ollie Pope.
England staged a comeback into the series winning a close encounter in Headingley, as played exceptionally well as a group to overcome the mighty Australian to keep their Ashes hopes alive in the home conditions. With just two Test matches remaining in the series, the hosts need to win both games to make a dramatic comeback to win the series on their home soil.
Speaking on the ICC Review, Ricky Ponting believes that young Harry Brook is not a top-order batter in the longer format of the game, as he got the game to play lower-down the order and feels that Ben Stokes has got the skillset to bat at the number 3 position for England and said that he got a great ability to play at the top-order for the England team.
“I’m not sure if Harry Brook is ever going to be a top-order Test match batsman. I think he’s always going to be a four, five, or six-type batter with the way that he plays,”
“I thought the opportunity was there for Ben because a lot of the time with Stokes and, you know this is no knock on him whatsoever as he’s a terrific player, but a lot of the time he’s got to come in and play a Mr Fix-It role when it’s almost like a damage control sort of role where I’ve always felt that if he batted at No.3 then he could sort of stop some of that damage with the technique that he’s got,” Ricky Ponting said.
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 his role to the perfection in the Ashes series playing some crucial knocks for his team in three-match so far.
It Gives Ben Stokes A Chance To Be Fresher To Bat Up The Order – Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting feels that Ben Stokes not bowling due to an injury gives him a chance to bat at the top of the order as he would be fresh in the field and said that the team management should look at him as a candidate to play in the number 3 position as Harry Brook and Moeen Ali failed to make an impact for the team on the 3rd test.
“And the fact that he’s probably not going to bowl if they go in with the same bowling attack, he’s probably not going to bowl in the Test match, so it gives him a chance to be fresher to bat up the order. So that would be something that I’d be thinking about if I was England and certainly something that Australia should be ready for,” Ricky Ponting added.
England side is likely to play the same playing 11 in the high-octane fourth test in Manchester. It will interesting to see whether England promotes young Harry Brook to the top of the order or bring in their skipper Ben Stokes to play the crucial role for the team.