'First one that comes to mind is maybe Dhoni': Ponting makes staggering comparison for Stokes after Ashes Test ton

After Ben Stokes' century in the second Ashes Test, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting compared the England captain to legend MS Dhoni.

Defending WTC champions Australia maintained their winning form, beating England by 43 runs in the second Ashes Test to extend their lead to 2-0 in the five-match series. The home side's Bazball approach failed to deal with the Aussie threat, but captain Ben Stokes almost single-handedly levelled proceedings, slamming a heroic ton during his side's second innings.

Ricky Ponting made a huge MS Dhoni comparison for Ben Stokes.

The all-rounder clobbered 155 runs off 214 balls, packed with nine fours and nine sixes, and was eventually dismissed by Josh Hazlewood.

This wasn't the first time Stokes destroyed Australia. He had done something similar in the 2019 Ashes series, hammering an unbeaten knock of 135 runs to help England seal a thrilling one-wicket victory and this time he was close to repeating such a feat.

Speaking to The ICC Review, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting compared Stokes' match-winning ability to that of MS Dhoni. "I think any international player is under pressure anytime they walk out to play, but Ben batting in the middle order or later order like he does, probably finds himself in more match-winning opportunity situations than some others might", he said.

"The first one that comes to mind is maybe someone like a Dhoni, who's there at the end in a lot of T20 games, and finishing games, whereas Ben's doing it at the end of Test matches, and there's not, probably not many, many players through the history of the game that have found themselves in that sort of role and are there at the end winning games, and especially as a captain."

Taking a walk down memory lane, Ponting also reminded fans of the similarities of Stokes' knock in 2019 to that of the ongoing series. "I thought and everyone probably thought he could do it again because we've seen it happen before, but this was probably, slightly more runs that they were chasing (in 2019)", he said.

"In the back of the back of everyone's minds, I think once it started playing out the way that it was and how many similarities there were to Headingley in 2019…Steve Smith dropped him…and he was dropped on 116 by Marcus Harris at Headingley, So those sort of ghosts of the past kept coming back out," he further added.

The third Ashes Test is scheduled for July 6-10, at Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds, where Stokes performed his heroics in 2019. The hosts will be aiming to stage a comeback in the series and make it 1-2. But the visitors will have other plans, and will be eyeing a series-clinching win.

(With PTI Inputs)