Ponting’s Ashes comments prove he could help England amid new coach speculation

Ricky Ponting has been tipped to become England’s next head coach and the Australia legend gave an insight into how he could help improve their batting with his work on commentary during the Ashes

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Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has been tipped as a potential replacement for Chris Silverwood as England head coach, following the side’s Ashes humiliation.

England lost the series 4-0 and suffered crushing defeats by nine wickets in Brisbane, 275 runs in Adelaide, an innings and 14 runs in Melbourne and 146 runs in Hobart.

Silverwood has come under increasing pressure and both Nasser Hussain and David Lloyd have named Ponting as an ideal replacement.

The 47-year-old has done some coaching with Australia in the past and he was in line to become their specialist T20I coach back in 2018 before the infamous ball-tampering scandal occurred.

Ponting currently coaches Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League and is a regular on commentary for Australian broadcaster Channel 7.

During the Ashes, Ponting’s analysis helped Cameron Green finish the series strong after his early struggles with the bat and illustrates just how Ponting could help England’s struggling batters improve.

After Green made a duck in Brisbane and two in the first innings in Adelaide, Ponting spoke about how he felt the young all-rounder could improve while on commentary for Channel 7.

“The fix for mine for him is to make his stance a lot more neutral, so don’t start so open,” Ponting said.

“Start on middle stump and start with a square stance. Then, by the time he makes that back and across movement, his front foot won’t have to go as far to cover his off stump.”

Towards the end of the series, Green found some form with the bat, scoring 74 in Sydney and in Hobart, before admitting that Ponting’s comments had helped him improve.

“There was a bit of a change, trying to get my foot around in my pre-ball movement,” Green told cricket.com.au.

“Ricky mentioned it in the media. There’s not many guys you would [rather] listen to. He’s a guy I looked up to.

“He relayed that to the coaches and people I trust, and felt like we all on a pretty similar page. So [the change] came about from Ricky’s comments.”