Just The Tip Of The Iceberg: Ricky Ponting Fires 'England' Warning To Other Teams

Last Update on: August 1st, 2023 at 10:23 am

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has fired a warning to other teams in the world about England as the Ben Stokes-led side continues its meteoric rise in Tests. England have not looked back since Ben Stokes took charge of the Test team last summer.

After a stunning home season last year that was followed by a historic 3-0 win in Pakistan, England defied all the odds to draw the recently-concluded five-match Ashes series against arch-rivals Australia. Not many had given England a chance to avoid a series defeat after they lost the first two Tests.

However, the hosts did really well to draw the series 2-2 and may very well have won it had rain not played spoilsports during the final two days of the fourth Test where Australia had their back against the wall. England might have failed to reclaim the Ashes but they are receiving praise from all over for the brand of fearless cricket they have displayed in the series.

Ricky Ponting fires ‘England’ warning:

With England continuing their impressive rise in Test cricket with their fearless brand of cricket, Ricky Ponting has said that there latest performance is “just a tip of the iceberg”. The legendary cricketer stated that England will only get better in the coming days as the likes of Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett are still very young.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg, I believe. It is a relatively young team, some of the guys haven’t played a lot of Test cricket – Harry Brook, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley can all still improve. England will get better, tweak things along the way. I am looking forward to seeing them in the future,” Ricky Ponting told Sky Sports.

Speaking further, Ricky Ponting highlighted the confidence the England team carried despite the early setbacks. The former cricketer heaped praise on England for their cricket, saying:

“England had opportunities in those first two Test matches and knew their style was standing up to what Australia had. You could hear the self-belief coming through Stokes, coming through McCullum, coming through all the players, whenever we spoke to them.

“They were unwavering in what they wanted to do and how they wanted to play. I think they have learnt along the way. It was just a little tweak in game awareness, that’s all it was. If you look at the players they have, I don’t think McCullum is asking them do anything other than be themselves. He is saying, ‘go out and trust your way’,” added Ricky Ponting.

In the fifth and final Ashes Test, England defeated Australia by 49 runs to draw level in the series. Chasing 384, Australia began the day on 135 for no loss but were eventually bowled out for 334.