England haven't done anything to impress me: Ricky Ponting

It ain’t that easy to earn praise from the former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting. The legendary former cricketer said England have done nothing impressive so far. Joe Root’s men were beaten by 10 wickets at the Gabba in Brisbane in the 1st Ashes Test match. The visitors will now have to climb a mountain as Australia declared their innings on 442/8 in the 2nd Test, before bagging the wicket of Mark Stoneman.

The hosts ended the day on 29/1 and will have to bat out of their skin to make a match of it now. Ponting feels it’s a long way for the tourist side. He also went on to say that Root’s men got an England’s pitch in the first three days of the Brisbane Test, yet they lost it by 10 wickets.

“England haven’t done anything to impress me yet,” Ponting told cricket.com.au. “Everyone talked about how even the first Test was but it actually wasn’t. Australia win by 10 wickets having lost the toss and the wicket was nowhere near like a Brisbane pitch. They got an England pitch for the first three days and they survived and held on because of the conditions.”

Anderson, Broad lacked that impact: Ponting

Punter also slammed the Three Lions’ pace duo of  James Anderson and Stuart Broad by saying they lacked that impact on the match. “But as soon as they hardened up and got quicker England were found wanting and found wanting badly. The same thing here. They won the toss, they got the conditions that they wanted; a grassy pitch, overhead conditions. (Stuart) Broad and (James) Anderson, as good as they’ve been, they lacked that impact on the game.

“They continue to bowl well but they just haven’t got the impact to knock over the best players right now and the guys behind them – (Chris) Woakes, (Jake) Ball up there in Brisbane, (Craig) Overton here – have been steady but not good enough.” said Ponting, who has 41 Test hundreds to his name.

Ponting predicted that it is going to be a 4-0 victory in favour of Australia.”I said before the series 4-0 but I also said Adelaide was (England’s) best chance of winning a game and if they’re going to do that from here they’re going to have to play some pretty good cricket.”