The Ashes: Australian cricket legend Ricky Ponting says this series make or break for England’s Bazball

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting says England’s commitment to Bazball over the past three years has been geared “only” towards this Ashes series. Ponting, who will join the Channel 7 commentary team for the five-match series, starting with the first Test in Perth on Friday, says the tourists won’t change their batting top-order as it was totally geared towards the fast, aggressive cricket they have played under coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes. It all starts tonight with a special Ashes preview show with Ricky Ponting, Aaron Finch and James Brayshaw at 9.30pm straight after The Front Bar. “This whole three years of Bazball has been only about this summer,” Ponting said. “It’s been about trying to find a group of players and a style and method that’s going to stand up and potentially win an Ashes series in Australia. “Wind the clock back, when England won the (50-over) World Cup under Eoin Morgan in 2019, it was exactly the same theory they had then. “They picked a group of guys that they had kept together for two years. It didn’t matter how they performed in the games leading up, it was all about being ready and confident for the World Cup and that’s what they’ve done with this squad. “There’s been talk every series about Ollie Pope at No. 3 and do we stick with him? Do we axe him and bring Jacob Bethell in? But they’ve stuck with what they’ve got now. “I’ll be surprised even if he (Pope) doesn’t start well if they make any changes through this series to their top-order batting.” Ponting said England had “tweaked” Bazball, but remained all-in on the philosophy for the Ashes, despite commentary they never talk about it. “They do talk about it. They talk about not caring if they win or lose and you know we’re just trying to grow the Test match game,” Ponting said. “They are talking about it, don’t worry about that even if they don’t use the reference that everyone else uses, which is Bazball. “I think that’s what makes this series so intriguing. Australia will do the same old thing again and again and again and England will try to combat that with a totally different style of play. “I think they actually have tried to evolve Bazball the last couple of years and I think they had to make some tweaks and changes at different times to give themselves a bit more chance of consistent success.” The first Bazball Test featuring openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett was against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in December 2022, where they put on a record-breaking opening partnership. They scored centuries on the same day, setting the tone for England’s record 506-4 on day one, which broke a 112-year-old record. “In the early days it was just so hit and miss but they would do some miraculous things and win some remarkable games,” Ponting said. “What Crawley and Duckett did early days they were something like 380 at tea on the first day. That won’t happen in Australia. “But they have certain players that play that way, their top three play that way. I think (Joe) Root is a bit more circumspect. He’s playing his natural sort of game. Harry Brooks is a Bazballer and (Ben) Stokes has never really been that. He’s always been a bit more circumspect than the others. “So I think they have refined it to a certain degree, but they can’t change it.” STEVE SMITH v BEN STOKES The Ashes will be decided by the top-order batting of both teams, and the head-to-head records of acting Australian captain Steve Smith and England leader Ben Stokes, according to Ponting. “I know Smith’s not bowling and Stokes gets the chance with bat and ball,” Ponting said. “But you always talk about how important captains are going into a series but this one for me stands out even more. “Because if we have got a few little chunks in the armour at the top then so much of the run scoring is going to come back on Smith and if Smith doesn’t have a huge series, then we could be in real trouble. “And if Stokes doesn’t have a great series with the ball or gets injured then I think that completely unsettles England’s bowling make up as well. “So the captains are the standouts. And I don’t think England can win unless their openers have a good series as well. “If their openers get knocked over cheaply in this series it puts too much pressure on their middle order and exposes their middle order. “Whenever England have done well in the last couple of years it’s been on the back of some really fast starts with the bat with Crawley and Duckett getting them away and putting oppositions under pressure. “At their strongest with Hazlewood and Cummins in and (England bowlers Jofra) Archer and (Mark) Wood in, both bowling line-ups almost equal each other out. “I think it’ll come down to the top-order batting that decides the whole series.” AUSTRALIAN TOP-ORDER The absence of Australian strike bowlers, captain Cummins and Hazlewood, for the first Test tilts the ledger back in England’s favour, says Ponting. “I don’t think it makes them (England) favourites to win. I think it makes it a bit more comfortable for them. I don’t think anyone can argue with that,” Ponting said. “In fact it could even change the way that Australia think about selecting their team for the first game. “They might now think that they need that extra bowling cover with Beau Webster, understanding that Cam Green is on restrictions. “Green only bowled the 16 overs last week in the shield game and it was eight overs an innings, so that’s pretty clear to me that he is on restrictions. “(Scott) Boland and (Brendan) Doggett making his debut. I think Boland is someone that England will go after and try and throw him off his line and length. So the Aussies might think that they need Webster and Green in the same team. “In my own heart of hearts my best team doesn’t have Webster in it. “I’d be opening with Jake (Weatherald) for sure. I love the way Jake goes about it. They’re on record all week his teammates and the selectors saying that they love his method, they love how aggressive he is, love the fact he can put pressure back on the England bowlers and when I heard that it was like ‘he’s definitely going to play’. “But then Hazlewood goes down and then they might start rethinking it. I would be playing that side that doesn’t have Webster. I’d be leaving Green down the order that number six and Marnus’ best spot in this team when he is batting well is at No. 3.” SPIN KING The focus has been on the pace attacks of both teams, but the series could well hinge on Australia’s reliable off-spinner Nathan Lyon. Ponting said if he was an England selector, he would play spinner Shoaib Bashir in Perth. The tourists are contemplating playing quicks - Archer, Wood, Stokes and Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse or Josh Tongue - ahead of tweakers Bashir or Will Jakes. “It could very well be the difference, but I would actually play Bashir if I was England,” Ponting said. “Nathan Lyon, his record in Perth and Brisbane where they play the first two Tests, is probably better than they in any other venue in Australia and Bashir is a similar sort of bowler. “He is a taller version of Nathan Lyon, he releases the ball in a similar sort of manner where he gets overspin on the ball and overspin obviously creates more bounce, which is what you are going to get in Perth and Brisbane. “So with Stokes bowling as well as he is I think I’d be playing Bashir. Don’t miss your FREE 56-page glossy Ashes series guide magazine in Friday’s The West Australian “With Nathan Lyon, they will go after him as soon as he comes on and try and put him off his areas. If Australia don’t have Webster there it makes Australia go back to Boland or back to Green or whatever, so tactically that’s the way that I’d be thinking and vice-versa with Australia. “If I was Australia I’d be going after Bashir as soon as he comes on as well.” ENGLAND LEAD-IN England’s lead in has been widely criticised, in Australia and back in the UK, after the tourists played just one warm-up game against the English Lions at Lilac Hill. But Ponting said it could work in their favour. “They’re not that silly. They know their players are all very experienced and Brendon is an experienced coach now and they’re not deliberately going to go in under-skilled,” Ponting said. “They might go in on the fresher side, which I think is a great idea as well with five Test matches and I know there’s a couple of bigger breaks around the first couple of games but Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney all roll around pretty quickly. “Sometimes you have got to look at the back half of the summer as well, not just the front half of the summer and make sure you go on as strong as you can at the back as you were at the start. “Pat Cummins was a great example of that last year. He had limited preparation going in. He was a bit rusty in the first Test but by the time the fifth Test came around he was going as strong as ever, so there might be a bit of that thinking from England as well.“