Ashes 2023: Ponting suggests England to drop James Anderson for 3rd Test

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting believes that England must keep Josh Tongue in the playing XI for the third Test at the expense of senior pacer Jimmy Anderson who looked like the most disappointing bowler for the hosts so far in the series in order to overturn their 20 series deficit in the ongoing Ashes 2023The 40yearold pacer picked up only three wickets in the first two Tests and surprisingly let go of two catches while Tongue claimed five wickets during the second Test match after being named Moeen Alirsquos replacementTongue removed both Australia openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja in the first innings and Steve Smith twiceTo rectify their campaign and with the little rest in between matches Ponting feels Tongue must once again be included leading the hosts to further reshufflesFrom what I saw last week I thought he was the standard of their fast bowlers Stuart Broad got the wickets in the second innings but Tongue got early breakthroughs Ponting said on the latest episode of The ICC ReviewAlso Read Ashes 2023 England suffer blow as Ollie Pope ruled out of rest of series due to injuryLike Smith Tongue also removed a resurgent Warner a second time in the match having attacked the stumps through bowled and lbw dismissals against the lefthanderThey were both very similar dismissals from around the wicket with the ball coming back in I think that is something that they need to consider as well Ponting notedThe hosts were forced to resort to the parttime offbreaks of Joe Root at Lordrsquos after Moeen broke down with a spinning finger injury at Edgbaston While the former skipper admits questions still linger around Moeens fitness and Rehan Ahmeds readiness to face the rigours of Ashes cricket should a spinner come in Ponting believes it should be Anderson to make wayHe Anderson looked like the most disappointing bowler for England so far What you expect from James Anderson is when hes got that new ball in his hand hes taking early wickets hes moving the ball and hes not going for any runs We havent seen that in the series so farAnd thats not a direct criticism of Anderson Hes been one of the alltime greats of the game his longevity and his walltimeking ability but if I was looking at the bowlers I saw last week I think hes the one thats looked to have the least amount of penetration said PontingOllie Robinsons had less penetration but hes probably actually bowled a bit better Hes been in control of the game more than Anderson has Theyve still got a few questions there with Moeen Do they risk going into the game again and having the same injury happenI doubt that he would have bowled enough between the end of Edgbaston and the start of Headingley for them to be 100 percent convinced that hes going to be physically right to bowl a lot of overs in a Test match It could get down to the stage where theyre bowling last at Headingley and they might need someone like him to bowl 25 or 30 overs in an innings he addedThe third Test starts on July 6 at Headingley where England will look to avenge their first two losses as they strive to keep their Ashes hopes aliveThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever