England captain Joe Root should have got his bowlers to change their lengths if he felt that they should be bowling fuller, former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has said. Root said that his bowlers should have been “braver” and bowled fuller and Ponting said that the onus was on the 30-year-old to ask his bowlers to change their lengths during the match.

“I nearly fell off my seat when I heard that,” Ponting told cricket.com.au website. “Whose job is it then to make them change? Why are you captain then?

After a nine-wicket thrashing in the Brisbane opener, England lost the second test in Adelaide by 275 runs on Monday to trail the five-match series 2-0.

“If you can’t influence your bowlers on what length to bowl, what are you doing on the field? Joe Root can come back and say whatever he likes but if you’re captain, you’ve got to be able to sense when your bowlers aren’t bowling where you want them to. That’s what captaincy is all about,” said Ponting

Ponting also suggested that England’s bowling attack was at its best when Root left the field due to a groin injury and the captaincy was briefly passed over to Ben Stokes.

“The interesting thing for me is the only time they bowled full in the game was when Joe Root wasn’t on the ground,” Ponting said.

“The start of day four when they had a meeting on the ground before play started, Stokes took over the captaincy, and that was the only time in the game they pitched the ball up.”

The third Ashes test will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from Dec. 26-30.