Melbourne: Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting feels Ben Stokes hasn't looked like the "physically aggressive" presence that opposition teams have feared due to his "ultra-defensive approach" in the ongoing Ashes series.
Ponting also slammed England skipper Joe Root, Stokes and Jos Buttler for the manner of their dismissals in the first innings of the Boxing Day Test which the two-time World Cup winning captain believes was "inexcusable". England are 0-2 down in the marquee showdown between the traditional rivals.
"He's looked ultra-defensive. He hasn't looked like the big, physically aggressive presence at the crease that opposition teams have feared to bowl to in other series," Ponting told 'cricket.com.au'.
"You can understand why the batting conditions haven't been easy in any game and he's coming up against some good bowlers," he added.
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Ponting reckons Stokes must deviate from the conservative approach to help the struggling tourists.
"But I think if you just sit back and wait, and don't put pressure on great bowlers, they're going to get you out. We always used to say in teams that I played in that the better the bowler, the more risks you had to take as a batter, because you simply don't get bad balls.
"You have got to find a way to jump on anything that's a little bit bad, rotate the strike as much as you can."
Heading into the third Test, England shuffled their top order, bringing in Zac Crawley and Jonny Bairstow in place of Ollie Pope and Rory Burns. But after being put in to bat on day one in the Boxing Day Test the tourists were bowled out for just 185.