Manchester, July 25 (IANS) Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes England might only want to bat once in the ongoing fourth Test against India, citing the good batting conditions on offer for day three’s play at Old Trafford.

England ended day two’s play at 225/2 in 46 overs, after Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley shared a 94-run opening partnership. With Ollie Pope and Joe Root on task to reduce the deficit, the hosts are in sight of taking a big lead.

“England’s win percentage might now even be higher, thinking about these batting conditions today (in bright sunshine at Old Trafford). They definitely got the better of it yesterday; we saw just how much the conditions changed from the morning to the afternoon.”

“Batting conditions probably won’t get any better than they are right now and they’ve got two class players at the crease (in Pope and Root). England will have gone to bed last night thinking about the possibility of only batting once in this Test match.”

“They want to bat long and get a huge first-innings total. India need to find a way early to get back into this game with early wickets, otherwise this game is slipping away very quickly,” said Ponting on Sky Sports’ broadcast.

If Root goes past 19 and 20, he will leapfrog Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis to be in third place on the all-time leading run-scorers list in Tests. Root could potentially go past Ponting if he manages to get a score of 120 or more. “That could very well happen today (Root passing him on all-time run-scorers list). It’s a great day for batting. What a remarkable career it has been.”

“How he has transformed from someone who couldn’t kick on from a score past fifty into a hundred, whereas now it’s almost like every time he gets to that mark it’s a hundred – and a big hundred! What an amazing career to date, he’s still got some way to go – he’s only 35. Can he chase down Sachin? Let’s see… he might well do it,” added Ponting.

–IANS

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