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[VIDEOS] How will you remember Ricky Ponting?

A dream batsman and perhaps the best batsman of last 20 years. Ruthless to the core, he went for the kill if he smelled the blood, no half measures.
 
he changed the dynamics of odi cricket. He made odi interesting. Prior to ponting's dominance in the world cup, test was always heralded as the premier form of cricket. It still is but odi is on par with test for modern teams. Winning the world cup is as important as being number 1 in tests.
 
He thrived under pressure.Look at his centuries in knockout matches. He was the best batsman you could trust under pressure. A true legend of the game
 
Ab Fan said:
A very good batsmen who looked great because he played in a legendary team and hit his peak when most of the legendary bowlers had or were at a point of calling it a day.
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Or because his peak coincided with the retirement of legendary bowlers. Batsmen peak in their late 20’s and early 30’s, and it is not his fault if a lot of great bowlers retired at point.
 
Gullycricket said:
Lol Kohli can only dream of achieving what Ponting did as captain.
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Kohli is a better batsman and a better captain (at least in Test cricket). Ponting inherited not only the best Test team in the world but also arguably the greatest Test team of all time.

On the other hand, Kohli inherited an average Test team in 2014-2015 and has turned them into the greatest Asian Test team of all time.

He will overtake G. Smith as the most successful Test captain of all time by number of wins, thanks to the team he built himself.

Kohli is the greatest Asian Test captain of all time, while Ponting isn’t even the greatest Australian Test captain of all time.
 
Ponting will be remembered as the greatest batsman of the last 25 years after Tendulkar, Kohli and Lara.

A phenomenal cricketer.
 
Mamoon said:
Or because his peak coincided with the retirement of legendary bowlers. Batsmen peak in their late 20’s and early 30’s, and it is not his fault if a lot of great bowlers retired at point.
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He also went past his peak post the retirement of McGrath,Warne, Gilchrist and Hayden. Maybe no longer got the platform by top order to further demolize the opposition. Doubt if he deserves to be ranked among top 5 Australian test bat of all-time.
 
Ab Fan said:
He also went past his peak post the retirement of McGrath,Warne, Gilchrist and Hayden. Maybe no longer got the platform by top order to further demolize the opposition. Doubt if he deserves to be ranked among top 5 Australian test bat of all-time.
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Ponting was the best batsman in the world from 2002 to 2008, between the age of 28 and 34.

That is very normal for 99% of the batsmen. Tendulkar was a rare exception who had a fantastic period between 2009-2011 at the age of 36-38. Very few batsmen can be world class across formats at that age.

The difference between him and the McGrath, Warne, Gilchrist and Hayden was that all of them retired before their decline started. None of them stuck around till 2009-10 and tarnished their figures a bit like Ponting, who should have retired a lot earlier than 2012.

Gilchrist didn’t provide any platform for Ponting. Ponting was the one to provide Gilchrist platform in Test cricket.

Gilchrist underachieved considerably in ODI cricket. He should have scored 25+ hundreds. The biggest ODI underachiever of the 2000s along with Sehwag.

People only remember the 3 World Cup finals and not the World Cup semifinal failures and the general inconsistency in spite of possessing extraordinary ability.
 
At his peak best in the world. At one point he looked as destined to go past Tendulkar as Djokovic looks now to go past Federer.

He also had the most dramatic decline among the great players. His last 3-4 years ruined his statistics where he was reduced from a 59 averaging batsman to a 52 averaging guy.

Attitude wise by far the worst bloke of his era which explains why he was booed across stadiums all over the world.

People say Kohli , he was never as viciously arrogant as Ponting though.

Off the field though, it is shocking to find Ponting being so nice. He's probably the best analysts of cricket among ex players and has the makings of a future ATG coach.
 
Gullycricket said:
Lol Kohli can only dream of achieving what Ponting did as captain.
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True Kohli has achieved nothing, especially in trophy section, compared to ponting but they have similar personality is what I meant. I have never liked either of them as personalities but admired them as cricketers.
 
Hitman said:
Corrected. We all saw what happened to Ponting as captain after McGrath, Langer, Martyn, Warne, Hayden and Gilchrist retired.
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Won 2009 CT. Scored century in a although losing cause against India in QF and scored lot of runs in 2012 against India. Kohli failed in WC
 
Gullycricket said:
Won 2009 CT. Scored century in a although losing cause against India in QF and scored lot of runs in 2012 against India.
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I admire Ponting a hell lot as a player. In fact he is one of my favorite batsman. I rate him alongside Sachin, Kohli, and Lara as the best batsman I've ever seen. But he wasn't a great captain, even Ian Chappell said the same. Maybe good, but not great. Having said that he is one of the biggest legends the game has ever seen. I miss him a lot as a player.
 
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Gullycricket said:
Won 2009 CT. Scored century in a although losing cause against India in QF and scored lot of runs in 2012 against India. Kohli failed in WC
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kohli is a superior test player. Based on stats he is a better odi player too but stats isn't everything so I would give the edge to Ricky here until virat can perform in KO stages.
However 2 Ko games doesn't determine greatness otherwise gambir would be regarded as a better batsman than say sachin and virat.
 
Wasn't Ricky Ponting worried of India before 2003 WC final?

I've read his biography and wc diary.

India were improving, had a good batting line up and there bowlers posed a huge danger with their 3 quicks, and Harbhajan troubled Aussies in 2001.

He didn't seem worried and he also knew that against Pak, Eng, NZ, Sri L, Kenya, they had batting collapses and their batting was inconsistent in this world cup. India must have fancied there chances seeing how they improved during their first lose and India knew of Australia's inconstancy in batting. Symonds and Bevan bailed them out on some games.

I loved his confidence, but he said he wasn't worried.

Then he must have great confidence in his batsman despite knowing they had a few hiccups in their batting order in this world cup, unfortunately India's bowlers on the day just bowled waywardly in the first 10 overs giving them 80 runs inside 10 overs.
 
He was a porcupine.

Small, cute and generally well behaved outside of the field but out there it was a live or die situation for him all time. Anything could rattle him and when everything seemed fine, he found an excuse to give it even to the umpires and opposition pavillion too :)) :))
 
I consider Ponting to be a legend and an ATG. One of the best cricketers in my lifetime.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">⭐ On this day in 2006, Ricky Ponting became the first player ever to record a century in both innings of his 100th Test match.<br><br>His 120 and 143* helped Australia beat South Africa by eight wickets at the SCG. <a href="https://t.co/tG60449Y6v">pic.twitter.com/tG60449Y6v</a></p>— ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1478909208011628544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Only Sachin and Lara were better than Ponting.

The guy was class, greatest Australian batsman of the modern era.
Above all, the best pull shot player I have ever seen.
 
Ponting had declined tremendously after 2007. I think his average in test cricket from 2007 to his retirement was around 40 which pails in comparison to his average of 60 from 1995 to 2007. He was no longer the same feared batsman as he was early on in his career.
 
Top advice from Punter videos circulating , , he also supported the decision that bowl first and it payed off nicely
 
The one who had nightmares vs Harbhajan when he came to India in 2001.

A test series that Australia should have won if he showed some meattle.
 
For me, he is hands down the best ever cricketer that ever lived. Infact, i consider him amongst the athletes of the world

The guy never gave up. His batting was a treat to watch. Going for scores, his shots that he would play. With his short height you would assume him to be a nothing character but than the guy not only talked with his bat but with his mouth too.

His captaincy was just pure master class. He created the captaincy standard. He would go in pick up fights, point fingers. Didnt matter if you were South Asian, African or Caucasian, the guy gave it to you. He loved to give it to the Indians, absolutely dominating them.

He didnt care if Aleem Dar was the best umpire, he would have a go at him too.

Even after achieving everything, the guy gave his heart out to win. I remember watching his team in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

If the cricket of 2000s - 2010 had a face, that face was Ricky Ponting.

We are in 2023, and we still havent found anyone similar as him in batting, captaincy and in aggressive character.
 
David Warner did come abit near to him personality wise. But the way South Africa found a weak spot on Warner during that infamous tour, Warner was not the same anymore. His character and all that bullying got exposed. He knew, if he tried to put up with it again, other teams (except for Pakistan) would use the same wife sledging that South Africa did in that tour.

Ponting had no weak spot.

One of the best memories of Ponting was the World T20 2007 and the DL method sheet in his pockets. We used to imagine about a minnow team beating THE GREAT AUSTRALIA. That night, Brendon Taylor did the unthinkable.
 
One of the greatest OAT and the ODI WC goat.
Not a great bloke though, but that can be said about a lot of players in that golden gen.
 
Anyone with more than 70 international centuries, that too before scoring centuries in ODI cricket became a joke, has to be one of the best ever.
 
One of the best ever. Would put him behind viv and on par with Sachin. Above kohli Younis miandad.
 
Major said:
For me, he is hands down the best ever cricketer that ever lived. Infact, i consider him amongst the athletes of the world

The guy never gave up. His batting was a treat to watch. Going for scores, his shots that he would play. With his short height you would assume him to be a nothing character but than the guy not only talked with his bat but with his mouth too.

His captaincy was just pure master class. He created the captaincy standard. He would go in pick up fights, point fingers. Didnt matter if you were South Asian, African or Caucasian, the guy gave it to you. He loved to give it to the Indians, absolutely dominating them.

He didnt care if Aleem Dar was the best umpire, he would have a go at him too.

Even after achieving everything, the guy gave his heart out to win. I remember watching his team in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

If the cricket of 2000s - 2010 had a face, that face was Ricky Ponting.

We are in 2023, and we still havent found anyone similar as him in batting, captaincy and in aggressive character.
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Lol the guy averaged 26 in India, bhajji made look like a tailender. I think you are confused, he averaged 97&119 in the UAE and Pakistan. It was the hapless and gutless Pakistanis that the great Ricky ponting dominated. Made them look like club bowlers
 
One of the greatest batsmen and fielders of all time. Scored an incredible amount of runs in both formats and was easily the best batsman in the world during the 2000s. The wc goat too. Incredible player
 
I will remember Ricky Ponting, a cricketing legend, as a fierce competitor and a leader par excellence. Winning 2 world cups back-to-back is a dream for many captains now a days.
 
For me, I started watching cricket because of him and Gilchrist. They were my idols back when I was in my teens. Ponting's beast sticker bat made me watch his batting as it looked too cool. I don't think I missed any of his innings during 2003-2007. The best part was when he lost the Ashes in 2005, reunited the team, smashed each and every team in the next 2 years, and won the 2007 World Cup and Ashes in style.

For me, he is a formidable leader and an excellent analyst. You can't disagree much with his analysis and comments on cricket.
 
When I think of him I immediately think of pull shot

I think only Rohit sharma and Ahmad Shahzad pull shots are comparable in modern day
 
I will always remember Ricky Ponting and George Bush as two of the most powerful white guys of that era. They could do whatever they want, say whatever they want, mess with whoever they wanted, and still act like it’s nothing.

“Now watch this drive”-George Bush

And watch this sublime Pull Shot off Mkhaya Ntini- Ricky Ponting
 
Ricky's name comes and then in my mind, comes the memory of his 2 world cup wins and 2 Champions trophy wins back to back. Phenomenal achievements. Moreover, his pull shot was classy and today only Rohit can match that classical shot.
 
He will always be remembered as an aggressive, winning captain and a great puller of a cricket ball!
 
Ponting makes call on England vacancy, ponders IPL coaching future

The Australian speaks on his future coaching ambitions as opportunities arise at international level and in franchise cricket.

Ricky Ponting has revealed he will not consider any approach to become England's white-ball coach as the Australia great considers his coaching future in the IPL and around the world.

The recent departure of Matthew Mott as England's white-ball coach has left a vacancy in one of the most highly-sought roles in world cricket and a host of former players and leading coaches - including Ponting - have already had their name linked to the job by cricket media.

Ponting turned down approaches from England to coach their Test side prior to Kiwi Brendon McCullum accepting the job, and the Australia legend recently finished a seven-year tenure in charge of the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League.

But Ponting hosed down any links to the job when speaking with host Sanjana Ganesan on the most recent episode of The ICC Review, revealing he currently has too much on his plate despite the recent departure from Delhi.

"No, I wouldn't ever consider doing that actually," Ponting remarked when asked if he would consider the England white-ball coaching position.

"I'm on record saying that international jobs for me right now are not really where my life is at as there's just so much more time taken up with an international job.

“I've got other commitments as well, with my TV work and things that I do and also trying to balance that out with having a decent amount of home time, which I haven't had much of the last couple of years anyway.

"Coaching other international teams is one thing, coaching England for an Australian is probably something slightly different, but right now there's sort of enough on my plate as I've got a bit more coming up in the next couple of months in the UK.

“Australia's got some white-ball stuff coming up over there which I'll go and commentate, so no, right now if my name was on the list they can actually take it off."

Ponting revealed on The ICC Review earlier this year that he had some informal discussions related to the India head coaching role Gautam Gambhir recently accepted in place of Rahul Dravid, and the Australian remains keen to continue adding to his impressive coaching resume.

The three-time ICC Men's Cricket World Cup winner just completed a successful tournament in the USA as the title-winning coach of the Washington Freedom in Major League Cricket and has another year on his contract there to transpire along with his various television and commentary roles around the world.

Ponting is also hoping to make a return to IPL coaching.

"I'd love to coach again in the IPL," he stated.

"I've had a great time every year that I've been involved, whether that was in the early days as a player or the couple of years I had at Mumbai as head coach there. And then I've had seven seasons at Delhi, which unfortunately didn't really work out the way that I would have wanted and certainly the way that the franchise would have wanted. I think me going there was all about trying to bring some silverware to the team and that didn't happen."

Ponting is expecting Delhi to take a different approach when selecting their next coach, with the Australian believing the franchise will likely appoint a local to the job.

"They made it pretty clear that they wanted to head in a different direction with someone that could give them a bit more time and a bit more availability through the off-season, really more than anything to be able to spend a bit more time in India with a lot of the local players. I just couldn't do that with the other stuff that I've got going on," Ponting said.

"I think what you'll find is that they'll probably end up with an Indian-based head coach. Certainly that's some of the dialogue that I've had with them anyway.

"But I'm really thankful for my time that I had there, met some great people, worked with some great people and obviously worked with some great players through the years as well. So I wish them all the very best but as I said there could be a few opportunities for me popping up in the next couple of months and I'd love to be back coaching in the IPL again next season."

ICC
 
Ab Fan said:
Except batting.
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Pointing's peak > Tendulkar's peak lol.

Tendulkar is overrated because he has a 1.3B population backing.

The reason Tendulkar is so good is because he remained as top 3 batsmen ever since he made his debut and remained that way fir 24 years all the way till his end,

Whereas most batters are inconsistent and avsrage in the beginning then they peak and then they decline as time goes on, we've seen kohli and rohit decline, we saw pointing struggle at the beginning and then decline towards the end.

Massive respect for Sachin for maintaining God level consistency for 24 years but people need to stop acting like he was Bradman and remained better at all points.

Viv at his peak is superior to Tendulkar, Lara in test is superior to Tendulkar, Pointing in world cups is far superior to Tendulkar, Kohli as a chaser is superior to Tendulkar, Rohit as a Power play utiliser is superior to Tendulkar, De villers as an innovative utilser is superior to Tendulkar.

Tendulkar gets longetivity points which is a huge feat and frankly besides Sangakara who is inferior to Tendulkar in odi's very few maintained that peak.

Infact almost every pakistani batsmen like Saeed Anwar, Inzi massively declined at the back end.
 
mominsaigol said:
Pointing's peak > Tendulkar's peak lol.

Tendulkar is overrated because he has a 1.3B population backing.

The reason Tendulkar is so good is because he remained as top 3 batsmen ever since he made his debut and remained that way fir 24 years all the way till his end,

Whereas most batters are inconsistent and avsrage in the beginning then they peak and then they decline as time goes on, we've seen kohli and rohit decline, we saw pointing struggle at the beginning and then decline towards the end.

Massive respect for Sachin for maintaining God level consistency for 24 years but people need to stop acting like he was Bradman and remained better at all points.

Viv at his peak is superior to Tendulkar, Lara in test is superior to Tendulkar, Pointing in world cups is far superior to Tendulkar, Kohli as a chaser is superior to Tendulkar, Rohit as a Power play utiliser is superior to Tendulkar, De villers as an innovative utilser is superior to Tendulkar.

Tendulkar gets longetivity points which is a huge feat and frankly besides Sangakara who is inferior to Tendulkar in odi's very few maintained that peak.

Infact almost every pakistani batsmen like Saeed Anwar, Inzi massively declined at the back end.
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I agree. I didn't said Tendulkar is Bradman anyways. Many players are better in many different aspects.

For example, vs pace = Ponting > Tendulkar> Lara
Vs spin = Lara > Tendulkar>Ponting
 
Ab Fan said:
I agree. I didn't said Tendulkar is Bradman anyways. Many players are better in many different aspects.

For example, vs pace = Ponting > Tendulkar> Lara
Vs spin = Lara > Tendulkar>Ponting
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If you look at their overall careers, Tendulkar will automatically be superior to every batter in odi because theirs no decline stage and no inconsistent beginning stage with him.
 
FearlessRoar said:
Stats don't lie. Ponting has scored valuable runs in fewer matches compared to him.
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Naw, Sachin scored more in fewer matches.

For pointing to surpass Sachin in odi in the same No of matches, He'd have to score a century in every 4 games he would play.

Pointing 375 games = 30 centuries scored
Sachin 464 games = 49 centuries scored

Although tbf if Pointing played in this era he'd be able to do it lol, but not in that era.

Pointing peak is still better then Tendulkar but as I said, Tendulkar automatically gets better points due to being consistent for 24 years.

For Tendulkar you don't have to search for certain years to justify whereas for pointing you'd have to say things like, I am not comparing 2011 pointing to Sachin, let's compare 2003 pointing to Sachin..
 
Will remember him as another one of the adopted heroes of Pakistani fans.
 
Pointing was the best aussie batter the country has ever produced period in white ball cricket.

This dude was next level and for me he's the greatest no 3 of all time(I find him a better no 3 in odi then kohli).

He's also an atg captain. Alot of people like to downplay pointing claiming he inherited Waugh side and he lost it all post 2007 but they have no clue what their talking about.

He maintained the same level of aggression from Waugh's side which most captains have been unable to do, a good example being India never finding another Dhoni level captain and carrying a choke tag for 11 years..

Afterwards people forget that 2011 to 2015 turning Australia into an atg unit was all pointing's doing a fact Clarke admitted to being frequently coached by pointing.

Steve Smith at no 3 was pointing idea, so was shark's introduction etc etc.

Dude is a next level captain and revolutionised the mantra of having your best batsmen bat at no 3.
 
Apart from Brian Lara, the only batter in his generation who came close Tendulkar’s status and in 2007 it genuinely felt like he was on track to surpass Tendulkar to become the 2nd greatest batsman ever. From 2003-2007, Ponting was absolutely phenomenal. Of all the great batters, his decline was the worst. After 2007-2008 Border Gavaskar trophy, he was never the same beast.

Extremely nasty and unlikeable cricketer in his era. Super rude with opponents and officials. Showed Sharad Pawar away while receiving Chanpions Trophy in Bharat. It was disgraceful. When he told Srinath to buzz off after Srinath came to check on him upon being hit, that was quite pathetic display of sportsmanship s well from him. There are many more examples. He had a lot of passion but he did not care. Australia’s dominance got to his head.

You see him now and he seems like the nicest, politest and the most sensible person ever. Complete change. IPL Money has humbled him.
 

‘Ricky Ponting Was The Songmaster….’: Tom Moody Reflects On 1999 World Cup Victory​


Former Australian all-rounder Tom Moody reminisced on Australia’s 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup win as he returns to the iconic Lord’s Stadium, the venue of the Aussies win over Pakistan in the title clash, for The Hundred tournament final as the coach of Oval Invincibles.

The final of The Hundred competition in the UK will take place on Sunday. 25 years after his victory in the 1999 WC along with Australia, Moody has entered Lord’s with an aim to win two back-to-back titles with Oval Invincibles.

Reminiscing on the team’s World Cup win, Moody said that though the Aussies entered the tournament as favourites after finishing runners-up to Sri Lanka in 1996, the team played poorly in their first half of the competition, losing their Pool B matches to New Zealand and Pakistan and barely making it to the top three in their group in order to reach the Super Six, where they were undefeated.

“We came in as favourites, but we played poorly for the first half of the tournament. We basically had to win seven in a row to be crowned champions. Being part of that journey for those seven games was pretty special,” said Moody as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

Australia thrashed Pakistan in the final by eight wickets, chasing down 133 runs in just 20.1 overs, with Shane Warne (4/33) and Adam Gilchrist (54) pulling off memorable performances. Moody also dismissed all-rounders Abdul Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood in the final.

“We had a long period of time in the dressing room to enjoy the experience of the journey and the occasion. All sorts of people came through, from family to famous cricket fans, but we were in our own bubble,” Moody recalled.

Moody reminisced that after the win, the team gathered together to sing their song, ‘Beneath the Southern Cross’.
“Traditionally in the Australian team, we would always sing that team song after a Test or a one-day series win. Ricky Ponting was the songmaster, and he delivered it on my shoulders, right in the middle. My lower back is still recovering,” he concluded.

In the 1999 WC, Moody scored 117 runs in five innings at an average of 117.00 with a fifty and took seven wickets as well.

www.india.com

'Ricky Ponting Was The Songmaster....': Tom Moody Reflects On 1999 World Cup Victory

Tom Moody, reflecting on Australia's 1999 World Cup win, returns to Lord's as coach of Oval Invincibles, aiming to secure back-to-back titles in The Hundred tournament.
www.india.com www.india.com
 
Pointing is literally the best odi batsmen for aus all time and even in tests still retired with 41 centuries and an avg of 51 despite frequent failures at the back end of his career.

And here we have experts who believe the likes of kohli, Laxman and Ashwin are > him 🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻.

The only comparison between kohli and Pointing is in odi where both at their peaks are debatable.

Pointing cones from the one ball era while kohli front 2 balls so it's hard to compare but I maintain that had kohli batted in Pointing's era, Pointing would be better at odi while batting g first while kohli would have been the better chaser.
 
Ponting was great against bounce and pace, spin and seam/swing was too much for him though.
 
Ponting played in an era where batting was very easy.

Look at number of top bowlers in 90s and compare it with 2000s:-

90s - Ambrose, Wasim, Donald, McGrath, Pollock, Waqar, Walsh, Bishop

2000s - McGrath, Steyn, Shoaib

Shoaib in 2000s was same as Bishop in 1990s.
 
Of the great batters of 90s and 00s Ponting and Dravid probably had the worst tail off in last 5 yr stretch of their careers. They basically became 37-40 avg players after being 60+ for 6-7 years

Lara finished strong, Kallis and Sangakkara were unreal till end, Younis had blips but still maintained numbers thanks to spin playing skills.SRT had a tailoff after 2011 for 2 years.

It seems Smith is headed down similiar path but he had a higher peak than Ponting also.

This is not a slight on any of them, they are all still great batters but merely observation on difficulty of maintaining peaks
 
For a short period, it looked as though Ricky Ponting was heading towards breaking all the important batting records, with his phenomenal consistency in one phase. Arguably after 2004 for periods, Ponting was the best batsman in the world. Ponting was one of the chief architects of Australia turning into one of the best 3 cricketing teams of all time. Possibly, no Australian batsmen more resembled the great Vivian Richards, as much as Ponting. On his day he virtually scaled Everest, in terms of sheer domination of bowling. At his best .in his era, no batsman was as explosive and clinical at the same time. No Australian batsmen played a more stellar role, in Australai ruling the cricket world.

Few batsmen could better ignite fuel towards a winning cause or in changing the complexion of a game as Ponting, or had a more positive orientation. Ponting could steer his side out of trouble or resurrect its; fortunes from dire straits better than any player in his era, at his best. Possibly no batsmen in the world in his time could sustain a tempo or escalate a wave for a team’s prospects to flourish in the manner of Ponting. Unhesitatingly I would categorise him with the best match-winers of all time., who could turn the course of a match in an electrifying manner. No post-war Australian batsmen could propel their side to reach the doorsteps of victory with equal relish as Ponting.

Ponting retired in test cricket aggregating 13378 runs at an average of 51.85. and scoring 41 centuries.in 168 test matches Ponting averaged 56. 97 at home and 45.81 away. Notable that Ponting averaged considerably more at home and away .and averaged less than 50 in and against South Africa, as well as in England. Still commendable that he averaged around 47, against top quality South African pace attacks.

30 of his centuries were scored in winning causes in which he averaged 59. 46., where he scored 9157 runs.

At one down position Ponting averaged 56. 27, scoring 9904 runs and scoring 32 centuries. , surpassing even great Viv Richards ,statistically.

As a skipper Ponting flourished as a batsman, averaging 51.51.

In peak era from 2001-2007 Ponting aggregated 6501 runs at an average of 71.43, scoring 25 centuries, in 62 tests. In his 100th test at no 3 he averaged 72.72. From January 1999 to December 2006, Ponting averaged 65.43, aggregating 8114 runs, in 87 tests. This was better than Lara and Tendulkar. His average declined in his last 58 tests where he averaged 40. 83, scoring 4083 runs.

Ricky Ponting is a strong candidate for the best Australian batsmen after Don Bradman, and the best cricketer of his time. Still he did not excel in as diverse conditions as Stalwarts like Alan Border and Steve Waugh. With a gun on my head, I would place Ponting as the 4th best Australian batsmen of all, after Don Bradman, Greg Chappell.and Alan Border. Facing express pace, possibly Ponting was the best of all Australian batsmen and amongst the top half dozen batsmen of all. He did not champion the seaming English tops or turning subcontinent strip nor weathered a crisis countless time as Border and Waugh shouldered. Ponting also did not face as lethal express pace bowling as Greg Chappell. With a gun on my head, I would place Ponting as the 4th best Australian batsmen of all, after Don Bradman, Greg Chappell.and Alan Border.

Statistically, Ponting would rank amongst the best dozen batsmen ever if not in the best 10. Where Ponting fell below the greats like Tendulkar, Lara or Viv Richards, was his record overseas, and on turning tracks in the subcontinent or against the moving ball in England. Ponting also had an advantage of representing one of the strongest teams ever, and thus was not tested sufficiently in a crisis.

What prevented Ponting from carving a place on par with Tendulkar and Lara, was his inability to flourish at the closing stages of his career. Had he sustained the temp from 1999 to 2006, he may have become the most successful test batsmen ever. Even if statistically on par, Ponting ‘s batting did not have the aesthetic essence or flair. of Lara or Tendulkar. Ponting also was never successful on Indian tracks, which caused the demise of his side in 2008-09 and 2009-10, in India.
 
Harsh Thakor said:
What prevented Ponting from carving a place on par with Tendulkar and Lara,
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Don’t think Ponting ever cared tbh

He wanted to win. Win, win, win. That was his goal.

Not to say Lara and Tendulkar didn’t, but Ponting knew he had a huge responsibility with the level of players he had at his disposal. He had to get the job done, he did get the job done.

The man is the kind of guy a multi billion dollar company head hunts to keep their business in shape.
 
Ponting was a great player but as captain he was vastly overrated. He had McGrath, Warne and Gilly 3 ATGs at his disposal and other ATVG like Martyn, Hayden, Langer, Gillespie, etc. His numbers nosedived as soon as McGrath and Warne retired and I take points off him, being a numbers man, for being less than great in England (biggest test for an Aussie) and poor in India (final frontier for his side back in the day).

Fun fact: only team Punter faced Wasim and Waqar both together in a test match, he scored 2 ducks.
www.espncricinfo.com

AUS vs PAK Cricket Scorecard, 2nd Test at Hobart, November 18 - 22, 1999

Get cricket scorecard of 2nd Test, AUS vs PAK, Pakistan tour of Australia 1999/00 at Bellerive Oval, Hobart dated November 18 - 22, 1999.
www.espncricinfo.com www.espncricinfo.com


That said, Punter is an ATG, a guy who could take a game by the scruff of the neck. Wish we had a player like that today who could do that consistently. Even Babar has not shown to me that he can do it as well as Punter did.
 
Probably overstayed his welcome and could have done without those last few years. His farewell from the game was far from graceful, from both formats.

But he's still an ATG in my book. Watching him bat at his peak was an absolute treat. Nobody murdered pacers with the pull shot more than him.
 
RizwanT20Champ said:
Ponting was a great player but as captain he was vastly overrated. He had McGrath, Warne and Gilly 3 ATGs at his disposal and other ATVG like Martyn, Hayden, Langer, Gillespie, etc. His numbers nosedived as soon as McGrath and Warne retired and I take points off him, being a numbers man, for being less than great in England (biggest test for an Aussie) and poor in India (final frontier for his side back in the day).

Fun fact: only team Punter faced Wasim and Waqar both together in a test match, he scored 2 ducks.
www.espncricinfo.com

AUS vs PAK Cricket Scorecard, 2nd Test at Hobart, November 18 - 22, 1999

Get cricket scorecard of 2nd Test, AUS vs PAK, Pakistan tour of Australia 1999/00 at Bellerive Oval, Hobart dated November 18 - 22, 1999.
www.espncricinfo.com www.espncricinfo.com


That said, Punter is an ATG, a guy who could take a game by the scruff of the neck. Wish we had a player like that today who could do that consistently. Even Babar has not shown to me that he can do it as well as Punter did.
Click to expand...
Ruined it when you put babar's name in this comment.
 
RedwoodOriginal said:
Probably overstayed his welcome and could have done without those last few years. His farewell from the game was far from graceful, from both formats.

But he's still an ATG in my book.
Click to expand...
He’s an honest performer

He could have walked away as well a year or two after McGrath and Warne retired

He reaped the rewards as their leader when they played, he took the shortcomings head on without them.

That’s life, that’s fair.
 
Captains should be rated on how they can handle an average side and turn it great. Anybody can be a world beater with McGrath, Warne and Gilly; not everyone can win ODI series in Aus with an average ODI side turning it into a good one.
 
RizwanT20Champ said:
Captains should be rated on how they can handle an average side and turn it great. Anybody can be a world beater with McGrath, Warne and Gilly; not everyone can win ODI series in Aus with an average ODI side turning it into a good one.
Click to expand...
You don’t just play with Warne and McGrath in your side.

You can’t turn a captain like Tatenda Taibu into Ricky Ponting by giving him Warne and McGrath

The Aussies especially in that era were all massive personalities in their own right. They were filled with leaders all around. A captain like Ponting, Waugh were the right material to keep them in check and get the best out of them.
 
Rana said:
He’s an honest performer

He could have walked away as well a year or two after McGrath and Warne retired

He reaped the rewards as their leader when they played, he took the shortcomings head on without them.

That’s life, that’s fair.
Click to expand...
Yeah the absence of Warne and McGrath, and then later Haydos and Gilchrist really exposed the Australian side. Guys like Hilfenhaus, Bollinger, Hauritz, and even Siddle were never good enough to fill those shoes. Johnson had his own struggles with injuries.

I think he maybe wanted to help the team transition into a new era, but in hindsight, he probably should have left much sooner. Clarke was more than capable of taking over.
 
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