The decision-making skills of those two comparatively new captains within the ongoing Ashes sequence have ignited fervent debates amongst pundits and media alike.
Stokes’ daring option to declare early within the first innings of the opening Test grew to become the topic of intense evaluation. Similarly, Cummins’ restricted utilization of rookie spinner Todd Murphy within the unlucky loss at Headingley raised important considerations and garnered appreciable consideration.”I think this has been one of the most tactical series that I could remember, because of the two different styles of play, probably two contrasting styles of leadership as well,” Ponting stated ‘The ICC Review’.
“Pat (Cummins) is more of an old-fashioned sort of Test match captain where he sort of lets sets fields and lets plans sort of unravel and is happy to do it over a long period of time, whereas Stokes is a bit the other way.
“He’s type of making an attempt to make one thing occur each ball and subsequently typically plans by no means actually have an opportunity to eventuate,” Ponting added.
Having been elevated to Test captain after Tim Paine’s sudden resignation ahead of the 2021 Ashes, Cummins has enjoyed a good run as the skipper.
The Australian pace spearhead began his captaincy stint winning the last Ashes series 4-0, then won against Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa. Australia also drew 1-1 with Sri Lanka away from home last year.
His only series loss came against India earlier this year before defeating the Rohit Sharma led side in the final to lift the World Test Championship mace.
“Look, Pat continues to be pretty younger within the job. Let’s not overlook that he is solely been doing it for a few years now and I’m positive he is studying alongside the way in which,” Ponting said.
Australia lead the series 2-1 heading into the fourth Test starting in Manchester on Wednesday.
“I’m not going to query Pat in any respect. The indisputable fact that Australia are 2-1 up says he is performed job to me.
“There’ll always be little things in a game. When you lose, there are always little things in a game that people are happy to talk about.
“But on the finish of the day, I feel the techniques are higher off ready to see what the result’s on the finish of the sequence after which we’ll have the ability to critique each captains on the consequence.”
(With inputs from PTI)
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com