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Batting great Ricky Ponting minced no words while dissecting the captaincy styles of Australia's Pat Cummins and England's Ben Stokes in view of the ongoing Ashes series between the arch-rivals. Both Cummins and Stokes have excelled in their captaincy roles for their respective teams in the longest format. If we look at their leaderships with the lens of current performances, Cummins-led Australia won the first two Tests of the five-match Ashes series while Stokes's England bounced back to clinch the third Test emphatically to keep the contest alive.
The former Australia skipper Ponting thinks Cummins is more of an old fashioned Test captain, who lets plans unravel while Stokes tries to make something happen every ball. Both the skipper have garnered eyeballs and sparked debates with their contrasting captaincy styles and decisions in the ongoing Ashes 2023 series.
In the opening Test Stokes' decision to declare early in the first innings saw many cricket pundits critically analysing the call while Cummins sparse use of spinner Todd Murphy in the third Test which scripted Australia's defeat also raised eyebrows.
"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 said '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 sort of trying to make something happen every ball and therefore sometimes plans never really have a chance to eventuate," the 48-year-old said.
After Tim Paine's resignation from the captaincy role ahead of the 2021 Ashes, Cummins came to the helm and has kept Australia in good stead under his leadership ever since. Cummins' profile as Australia's Test skipper speaks volume as he started off with a resounding 4-0 victory over England in the Ashes 2021. He followed it up with series vwin against Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa. They also drew 1-1 with Sri Lanka away from home last year. However Cummins' Australia lost the Border-Gavaskar series against India earlier this year but rocked the Men in Blue later to win the World Test Championship 2023.
"Look, Pat is still fairly young in the job. Let's not forget that he's only been doing it for a couple of years now and I'm sure he's learning along the way," Ponting said.
Australia are 2-1 ahead in the ongoing five-match Ashes series against England and will look to seal it with another one in the fourth Test which will be played in Manchester from June 19.
"I'm not going to question Pat at all. The fact that Australia are 2-1 up says he's done a good 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 at the end of the day, I think the tactics are better off waiting to see what the result is at the end of the series and then we'll be able to critique both captains on the result,” Ponting concluded.
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