Stokes must break 'ultra-defensive' outlook: Ponting

Ricky Ponting believes Ben Stokes needs to shed his "ultra-defensive" mindset if England are to turn around their batting woes, labelling their senior players' Boxing Day dismissals as "inexcusable".

England are still yet to pass 300 from five attempts in this Ashes series after being inserted and swiftly being rolled for 185 on the opening day of the third Vodafone Test at the MCG on Sunday.

Stokes, a late inclusion for this tour after finger surgery and mental health concerns kept him out of Test cricket for nine months, has struggled with the bat in his return with scores of 5, 14, 34, 12 and then 25 today when he was out aiming an upper cut off Cameron Green that ballooned to point.

Perhaps more worryingly for England though will be how the man who attacked Australia's bowlers at Headingley with reckless abandon not so long ago has put on the handbrake in the return bout.

Stokes has never finished a Test series with a lower strike-rate than his mark of 29.50 on this tour.

"He's looked ultra-defensive," Ponting told cricket.com.au. "He hasn't looked like the big, physically aggressive presence at the crease that opposition teams have feared to bowl to in other series.

"You can understand why – the batting conditions haven't been easy in any game and he's coming up against some good bowlers.

"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."

Ponting pointed out the struggles of the rest of the visitors' batters have not helped either captain Joe Root or Stokes, the pair the Australian rates as England's two leading batters.

England reshuffled their top-order personnel for the Melbourne Test, bringing in Zac Crawley and Jonny Bairstow in for Rory Burns and Ollie Pope, but Stokes has remained at the number five spot he has primarily occupied since the start of the 2019 Ashes.

It's where Ponting believes he should stay, with the allrounder averaging 41.35 from No.5 compared to 36.89 from the No.6 position he spent most of the earlier part of his career in.

"He's probably going into the game knowing that it's so important that he scores runs in that number five slot that he might be trying a little bit too hard," said Ponting.

"The bottom line with it is that technically he might be their second-best player, so you can't keep pushing him down the list when you're batting guys with inferior techniques ahead of him.

"And if you look at everyone outside of Joe Root then I would say that technically he is their second best player."

Ponting was particularly critical of Stokes, Root and fellow senior player Jos Buttler for their dismissals on the opening day of the MCG Test.

Jonny Bairstow admitted at stumps his side have spoken about being "stronger and tougher" at the crease after their stern team discussions following their defeat in Adelaide, but stressed that his side had been at a disadvantage by losing the toss on a seaming Melbourne pitch.

Root (50) fended at and edged Mitchell Starc to be out for his third half-century of the series to extend his wait for a first Test century in Australia, while Buttler was out on the stroke of tea miscuing a lofted shot off Nathan Lyon.

Ponting believes the manner of their dismissals set a poor example, especially after team meetings this week that were described as a "kick up the bum".

"You can talk as much as you want, but we can only judge on the actions that we see, and some of the actions that we've seen today didn't look like they're up for the fight at all," said the former Test captain.

"They showed a lot in the second innings in Adelaide and everyone thought that might have been a blueprint for them on how to fight and get through some tough situations.

"It was a tough situation (today), it was it was a difficult wicket, but, you know, that's where Ashes names are made.

"It's about getting through tough periods of play for your team. Joe got a fifty again and got out, and the rest of them really didn't look like it. It's been very ordinary batting from this outfit in the first two and a half Test matches.

"(It was) inexcusable for three of your more senior players, the players that they needed to stand up on the back of what we believe were some pretty stern discussions after the Adelaide game.

"If your leaders aren't going to do it, then you can't expect the younger guys to get the job done.

"The young guys are going to learn from the senior players and when the senior players are setting examples like that, you can understand why some of the younger guys are making mistakes as well."

How Aussies got Root and Stokes: HCL Vantage Point

"(Joe Root's wicket was) very similar to some of his other dismissals in this series.

"We talked about how he can probably get away with playing shots like that in England where there's not as much bounce, but with the extra bounce they've had in Brisbane, Adelaide and here at the MCG day one, you just can't be wafting and pushing the bat at balls a long way away from your body off front or back foot.

"Stokes' (wicket) seemed like a really strange shot. I think he was scared of the field placement to be honest.

"They had a deep backward square in place and a short ball at the body that, instead of playing a pull shot which is an instinctive shot for him, he tried to go the other way and ramp one up over the slips cordon, which he'd tried four or five overs earlier and played and missed."