"They got a little bit carried away with it" - Ricky Ponting questions England's decision-making in the opening two Tests of the Ashes series

Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting questioned England's decision-making, especially in the opening two Tests at Edgbaston and Lord's, after Australia retained the Ashes with the drawn fourth Test in Manchester.

Despite being in positions of strength in the first two games, the hosts squandered the opportunity due to a lack of game awareness. In the opening Test at Edgbaston, Ben Stokes pulled the trigger and declared their first innings at 393/8 with star batter Joe Root on 118.

Further, in an attempt to keep up with their "Bazball" batting style, several English batters lost their wickets to soft dismissals in the second innings. Likewise, in the second Test at Lord's, England were 188/1 in their first innings before falling prey to the bouncer barrage by the Aussie bowlers to be bowled out for only 325.

The overly aggressive decisions proved costly as England lost the opening Test by two wickets and the second game by 43 runs to concede a 2-0 series lead.

Speaking on the ICC review after the fourth Test with Australia up 2-1, Ponting said:

"Some of those decisions – the Edgbaston declaration, Lord's first innings batting – I think they got a little bit carried away with it then. One thing that hasn't probably been spoken enough about though is they have spoken about the right time and the right place to play that brand of cricket and they want to have aggressive cricketers and attacking cricketers, but they want to have smart cricketers as well."

Despite criticizing the smarts of the English team, Ponting gave flowers to their batting display in the Manchester Test, where England scored a mammoth 592 at a run rate of 5.50 per over.

"I think a couple of times they just probably haven't been as smart as they could have been. Day two at Manchester was just unbelievable cricket. Zak Crawley, 189 off 182 balls, and Joe Root, almost a run-a-ball, what'd he make, 80-odd. It was some of the most entertaining and demoralising Test match cricket that I've probably ever seen," added Ponting.

However, weather played spoilsport to England's chances on the final two days, where only 30 overs of play were possible, resulting in the visitors surviving with a draw.

"At the end of the day, they're 2-1 down" - Ricky Ponting

Pat Cummins has led Australia to retain the Ashes urn.

Ricky Ponting added while it is great to be part of England's Bazball batting style, the result still has the Aussies leading 2-1, with the hosts having no chance of winning the series.

Despite England winning the third Test at Headingley and being thoroughly dominant throughout the fourth Test, Australia retained the Ashes urn for the third consecutive time.

"And that's why it's nice to be a part of, but at the end of the day, they're 2-1 down, they can't win the series, and as much as they've dominated, say they've dominated certain parts of the game, it still hasn't been good enough to get their nose in front of the series," said Ponting.

Ben Stokes' men will now look to avoid becoming the first English side to lose a home Test series against Australia since 2001.

The final Test of the enthralling Ashes series begins at the Oval on Thursday, July 27.