The Ashes: War of Words Has Already Begun – Ricky Ponting, Jonathan Trott & Andrew Strauss Have Their Say
Australian Captain Ricky Ponting believes that his team is capable of repeating the 5 nil whitewash against England (in 2006-07) later this year Down Under.
Australia lost the Ashes for the 2nd time under the captaincy of Ponting to England in 2009. Back in 2005, England, under the captaincy of Michael Vaughan, beat http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 2-1 in the Ashes and won the series after 16 years. Australia regained the coveted Ashes urn the following year in Australia via a 5-0 whitewash (the first ‘whitewash’ since 1920-21). However, England once again regained the Ashes in 2009 under the captaincy of Andrew Strauss.
Ponting said that his team is good enough to reclaim the prestigious urn with yet another embarrassing 5-0 defeat for England.
The Aussie captain said that there is no reason why his team cannot do the same again. He said that it is all in his team’s hands, and if they play up to their potential, another ‘whitewash’ is not beyond them. Referring to the 2009 Ashes defeat against rivals England, Ponting said that losing a series is never easy, and especially a series of the magnitude of the Ashes is even worse. However, he added that Australia is a team that always learns from its mistakes, and the loss in England made them point out a number of flaws that he believes have been taken care of now.
England’s middle order batsman Jonathan Trott responded strongly to Ponting’s comments, and said that he till date has played just one Test against Australia, and that was the series decider last year. He said that he did not find Australia to be as threatening and said that these comments from Ponting are just mind-games and an effort to take the mental edge. Trott said that obviously Australia is threatened by the new English team and these are just tactics to build the series up.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755’s left handed opening batsman Imran Farhat, who was part of the team that beat Australia in the 2nd Test to level the series 1-1, said that beating Australia certainly is not impossible but it does take a lot of effort. He said that looking at both sides, right now he thinks that England do have the edge and will retain the series in Australia.
Glenn McGrath, former Australian fast bowler, has also predicted a 5 nil whitewash for Australia in the Ashes Down Under. However, he almost predicts the same every time. Back in 2005, when England won 2-1, McGrath predicted the same, later in Australia his prediction did come true but in 2009, he said the same but England won 2-1 once again.
Ponting said that it was the batting collapse in England that led to the series loss in 2009; he said that the fact that his team was not able to bowl them out on the last day in Cardiff was also a huge factor. The Aussie Captain reiterated that learning from one’s mistakes is the most important thing in the game, and his team is best at doing that.
England captain Andrew Strauss, on the other hand, said that he believes that the current England team is even better than the one that won the Ashes in 2005. The left handed opening batsman said that he is not bothered by the verbal attacks by his Australian counterpart, and he is confident that his team will be able to retain the Ashes even in Australia.
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