At some point during Ashes 2023, Bazball had Australia scratching their heads, admits Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting, one of Australia’s greatest captains ever and cricket’s keen observer, admitted England’s ultra-attacking style of play, which they called Bazball, did have the Aussies scratching their heads at some point during the recently-concluded Ashes series. Though Ponting said the 2-2 score line is a fair reflection of how both teams fared, he revealed it became tough for the touring side to combat Bazball approach even after leading 2-0 at one point.

While Australia looked comfortable in retaining the urn, which they eventually did (after the fourth Test at Old Trafford got washed out), they failed to win an away Ashes as England crawled their way back and won two of the three remaining Tests to draw series 2-2.

England’s Bazball style made headlines during the five-Test series, but it was Australia’s old-school approach that kept them grounded.

Having witnessed all the drama getting unfolded from close quarters, Ponting, while speaking with former Australian captain Tim Paine on the SEN Tassie breakfast show, said,"The two contrasting styles of play were great to sit back and watch."

"There was a lot of talk about Bazball and how England would approach it, and would that style stand up against the quality of the Australian attack - looking back, it probably did,” Ponting said.

Praising Bazball, Ponting said he’d be lying if he said that let didn’t let Australia rethink their plans across five Tests.

Although a 2-2 result is an overall winner, Ponting remains adamant that the change in the ball during the final Test at the Oval helped England gain momentum.

"It probably had some of the Australian players, coaches and the captain at different times scratching their heads as to how they were going to combat it. Think the 2-2 result, albeit probably slightly biased with a bit of controversy in that last Test with the ball changed the way that it was, gifted England some conditions they probably shouldn't have got, think the level of cricket played across the series, the 2-2 result was probably fair," the former Aussie captain added.

Crawley the difference-maker

Zak Crawley was England’s highest run-scorer in Ashes (480 runs), and Ponting was mighty impressed with the opener’s performance. He hailed the right-handed batter saying it was Crawley who soaked most of the pressure with his attacking stroke play.

"Zak Crawley has got to take a lot of credit, he was the one going into the series who was under the most pressure. That 180 he got at Manchester was as good a Test match batting as you could see…as I said it had [Pat Cummins] and the boys scratching their heads as to how they were going to bowl at him,” Ponting added.

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