LONDON: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has blasted England’s defeated skipper Joe Root by labelling him “soft” and saying he looked like a “little boy” during the visitor’s Ashes series defeat.

Root has been in the firing line both in Australia and at home after leading a disastrous England tour. Ponting has criticized the Englishman’s lack of leadership and believes Root is struggling to command the respect a leader needs, something he suggests that has been demonstrated by some of England’s off-field controversies.

England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow “headbutted” Australia’s Cameron Bancroft in a bar in October, while this month England Lions batsman Ben Duckett was suspended for pouring a drink over England fast bowler James Anderson.

“Those things show a complete lack of respect for him as captain,” Ponting told reporters. “To be honest, I think he has been under pressure right from the start because of things that have been happening off the field,” he added.

Ponting said England now need Root to “step up big time” and questioned why he appeared to be “too shy” in his post-match news conferences.

“The way he answered a lot of the questions after the game last week seemed almost like a little boy. You need to be more than that as a leader, especially when things aren’t going well. It just looks like it has been a little bit soft,” he said.

Ponting, who captained Australia in 77 of his 168 Tests between 1995 and 2012, said England had been “blown away” in the series. Despite Root winning all three tosses, Australia won by 10 wickets in Brisbane, 120 runs in Adelaide and an innings and 41 runs in Perth.

“They have been completely blown away. Unless you can find some drastic ways to get better, I’m not sure how they are going to improve,” Ponting said.

The former Baggy Green said Root’s batting — he has scored only 176 runs at 29.33 — was showing the effects of leading a beaten team. “Look at some of the shots he’s played. It looks as though something is playing on his mind a little bit,” he said.

But with the Ashes already decided and England scrambling to avoid an embarrassing 5-0 series whitewash, Bairstow has defended his captain by stating that Root is coping with the growing pressure and the England team was working hard to break their run of outs against the Australians in the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday.

“We don’t just owe him (Root), we owe ourselves as well,” Bairstow told reporters. “It’s something that you don’t come away and work as hard as we work to get nothing out of at all. So without doubt in these next two games it’s a case of, in our eyes, a two-Test series now and that’s exactly how we’ve got to look at it. We’ve got to go out there and try and win both of these Test matches.”