Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting feels the current Australian team has the capability of whitewashing England 5-0. This statement by the former captain comes after hosts Australia thrashed England by 10 wickets in the 1st Test at Gabba, Brisbane. Even former English players like Kevin Pietersen and Michael Vaughan have accepted the fact that England was “absolutely thrashed”, whereas the latter claimed that the visitors had “big issues” to address. Michael Vaughan was the captain when England won the Ashes in 2005 in England. But it seems that the first Test has seen it all, from ‘nightclub headbutts’ to the controversial Moeen Ali stumping. For the fans, it is going to be a treat but the absence of Ben Stokes is being sharply felt.
Speaking to cricket.com.au Ponting said,
It’s moments like this in series when you need to go even harder. When you know that you’ve got an opposition down and there’s things going around their camp, that’s when you’ve got to be harder on yourself as a group of Australian players and make sure they don’t let them back into the series.
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Remembering the 2006-07 win, the former skipper said,
I think back to 2006-07 here in Australia where we had a really good win here in Brisbane. We went to Adelaide, we didn’t get off to a good start down there, but we turned that around into a really positive win.
Ricky Ponting’s post-Test analysis of the action at the Gabba and what it means for the rest of the series.#Ashes @SwisseAU pic.twitter.com/f5YstU8CpE
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) November 27, 2017
He further said,
And once we won that game there, we knew that we’d broken them and we had to keep our foot on their throats and whitewash the series, which is what we did.
Ponting also said that the Australian team had the capability to win every game.
And I honestly think there’s a chance for this Australian team to do the same thing all over. If they pay attention to their own backyard and pay attention to detail and try and find ways to improve every game, I think they can win every game.
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The 2nd Test begins on December 2 at Adelaide.
