Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting compared Ben Stokes to former Indian captain MS Dhoni. Ben Stokes almost single-handedly led England to victory on his 155th at The Lord’s. Stokes needed more support from the other end to replicate the magic of Leeds 2019 at the Ashes.
England hit a target of 371 runs, and Australia won the match by just 43 runs. England’s skipper Stokes received praise from around the world for his effort. Stokes had not been scoring much before the Lord’s innings from him, but under pressure, he managed Australia’s short-ball attack well.
Ricky Ponting Compares Stokes With MS Dhoni:
Ponting said: “The first thing that comes to mind is probably someone like Dhoni, who is at the end of a lot of T20 matches and finishes the game while Ben does at the end of Test matches, and it’s not how that.” “Few players in the game’s history have found themselves in that role and ended up winning games, especially as a captain.”
However, speaking to ICC Review, Ponting said: “I think any international player is under pressure every time he comes out to play, but if Ben hits in the middle or lower order, he’s probably in some other position.”
Ponting said Stokes’ decisive blow at Headingley was on his mind during the exciting final day at Lord’s. He revealed that he thought, and probably everyone thought, that Ben could do it again because they’ve seen it happen before, but it was probably a little more racing than they were chasing (in 2019).
Ponting also said that: “in everyone’s mind, once it started working the way it was and how many similarities there were at Headingley in the year 2019, Steve Smith took him out, and Marcus at Headingley Harris took him out for 116, so that that kind of ghosts from the past kept coming back.”
After a poor performance in the previous match and back-to-back defeats in the first two matches of the five-match Test series, Stokes will be looking to win the third match at Headingley, where he had played arguably the Ashes’ best innings nearly four years earlier. Game 3 begins on Thursday, July 6.