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'Why are you captain then?' Ricky Ponting says Joe Root was not firm enough with his bowlers in Ashes

Joe Root said England's bowlers were too short in second Test at Adelaide; former Australia captain Ricky Ponting says, "whose job is it then to make them change? Why are you captain then? If you can't influence your bowlers on what length to bowl, what are you doing on the field?"

Joe Root (PA)
Image: England captain Joe Root said his bowlers were too short in Adelaide

Ricky Ponting has criticised Joe Root for not being firm enough with his bowlers after England tumbled to a 275-run defeat to Australia in the second Test.

Root, speaking after the tourists' heavy loss in the pink-ball fixture, said England's seamers had been too short as Australia racked up 473-9 declared in their first innings at Adelaide Oval.

But former Australia skipper Ponting says it was Root's job as captain to make his bowlers change their lengths or bring on ones that would do it instead.

Ponting told cricket.com.au: "I nearly fell off my seat when I heard that [Root talk about his bowlers' lengths]. Whose job is it then to make them change? Why are you captain then?

"If you can't influence your bowlers on what length to bowl, what are you doing on the field?

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"Root can come back and say whatever he likes but if you're captain, you've got to be able to sense when your bowlers aren't bowling where you want them to. If they're not going to listen, you take them off, simple as that.

"Give someone else a chance that is going to do it for you or you have a really strong conversation with them on the field to tell them what you need. That's what captaincy is all about.

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"If they had that [conversation] maybe the result could have been different.

"The interesting thing for me is the only time England bowled full in the game was when Root wasn't on the ground [having gone to hospital for scans after suffering a blow to the groin in the nets].

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"The start of day four when they had a meeting on the ground before play started, Stokes took over the captaincy, and that was the only time in the game they pitched the ball up."

England are 2-0 down in the Ashes with three games to play, starting with the clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from Boxing Day.

Only one side has ever come back from 2-0 down to win an Ashes series - Australia, under Sir Donald Bradman, in 1936/37.

Ponting added: "England have got some real selection dramas, I think - every message that they've sent so far has seemed like a confused one.

"Everyone saw this before the game started in Adelaide, everyone saw what the result would be in Brisbane with the team they picked up there [with Stuart Broad and James Anderson].

"What they're trying at the moment just isn't working."

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