"Why are you captain then?" Ricky Ponting questions Joe Root's leadership

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

Ricky Ponting has questioned Joe Root's captaincy in the wake of the England skipper's comments about his bowler's lengths during defeat by Australia in the second Ashes Test.

Root, who is rarely outspoken in his criticism of his teammates, queried the strategy of pitching the ball back of a length in the day-night fixture at the Adelaide Oval.

England lost by 275 runs to go 2-0 down in the five-match series as a wretched tour rarely looked like improving.

Australia racked up 473 for 9 declared in their first innings, with Marnus Labuschagne hitting a century and David Warner and Steve Smith both making 90s. 

Despite his batsmen then failing to get close to the Australian total, and having seen chances go begging in the field once more, Root highlighted issues with his bowlers when reflecting on the game.

"I don't think we bowled the right lengths," he said of his team's first-innings performances with the ball.

^{Ricky Ponting has criticised Joe Root's captaincy (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)}

Ponting was scathing in his verdict on Root's comments.

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

"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.

"And if they're not going to listen, you take them off, simple as that. Give someone else a chance that is going to do it for you. Or you have a really strong conversation with them on the field to tell them what you need. That's what captaincy is all about.

"Regardless of whether they have taken (more than) 1150 wickets between them – well, too bad.

"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"

Ricky Ponting

"'I need you to bowl differently here to how you bowl in England, I need you to bowl differently to how you bowled four years ago, and if you're not willing to do it then I'll find someone that can' – that should have been the conversation five overs into day one. If they had that (conversation) maybe the result could have been different."

Root said on Monday: "As soon as we did in that second innings, we created chances. We need to do that more, we need to be a bit braver, get the ball up there a bit further because when we do, we're going to create chances and make life difficult.

"That's one of the frustrating things because it's something we did four years ago and got it wrong and we didn't learn from it. We made the same mistakes last week (in Brisbane) – we just have to be better and we've got to learn those lessons very quickly."

^{Joe Root is staring down the barrel of another heavy Ashes series defeat in Australia (Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)}

England go to the MCG for the Boxing Day Test knowing that anything other than a widely unexpected win will see Australia retain the Ashes.

England have not held the urn since 2018.

Ponting suggested that the tourists' best period in the defeat at Adelaide was when Root was off the field.

"The interesting thing for me is the only time they bowled full in the game was when Joe Root wasn't on the ground," he said.

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

Root has won more games as England Test captain than anyone else (27) but has also lost more than anyone else (23). Over 58 matches at the helm, he has a win record of 46 per cent.

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