Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting

Australia

Full name Ricky Thomas Ponting
Born December 19, 1974, Launceston, Tasmania
Current age 32 years 72 days
Major teams Australia, ICC World XI, Somerset, Tasmania
Nickname Punter
Playing role Higher middle order batsman
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm medium
Height 1.78 m
Education Mowbray Primary; Brooks Senior High School, Launceston

Statsguru

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	110	183	25	9368	257	59.29	15890	58.95	33	36	1059	57	124	0
ODIs	269	263	31	9856	164	42.48	12385	79.58	22	58	845	121	117	0
Twenty20 Int.	5	5	1	178	98*	44.50	110	161.81	0	1	14	9	3	0
First-class	205	345	50	17750	257	60.16			66	71			208	0
List A	336	330	43	12034	164	41.93			25	73			148	0
Twenty20	6	6	1	198	98*	39.60	130	152.30	0	1			3	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4	5	10
Tests	110	527	231	5	1/0	1/0	46.20	2.62	105.40	0	0	0
ODIs	269	150	104	3	1/12	1/12	34.66	4.16	50.00	0	0	0
Twenty20 Int.	5	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	-	0	0	0
First-class	205	1422	757	14	2/10		54.07	3.19	101.57		0	0
List A	336	349	269	8	3/34	3/34	33.62	4.62	43.62	0	0	0
Twenty20	6	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	-	0	0	0

Career statistics
Test debut	Australia v Sri Lanka at Perth - Dec 8-11, 1999
Last Test	Australia v England at Sydney - Jan 2-5, 2007
ODI debut	Australia v South Africa at Wellington - Feb 15, 1995
Last ODI	Australia v England at Sydney - Feb 11, 2007
Twenty20 Int. debut	New Zealand v Australia at Auckland - Feb 17, 2005
Last Twenty20 Int.	Australia v England at Sydney - Jan 9, 2007
First-class span	1992/93 - 2006/07
List A span	1992/93 - 2006/07
Twenty20 span	2004 - 2006/07

Notes

ICC Player of the Year 2006
ICC Test Player of the Year - 2003, 2004, 2006
One-Day International Player of the Year - 2002
Allan Border Medal 2004, 2006, 2007
Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2006

Profile

Acclaimed by academy coach Rod Marsh as the best teenage batsman he had ever seen, Ricky Ponting began with Tasmania at 17 and Australia at 20, and was given out unluckily for 96 on his Test debut. He was and remains the archetypal modern cricketer: he plays all the shots with a full flourish of the bat and knows only to attack, and his breathtaking, dead-eye fielding is a force in the game by itself. A gambler and a buccaneer, he is a natural at one-day cricket. He has had his setbacks, against probing seam attacks and high-class finger-spin, which, when out of form, he plays with hard hands. In the 1990s there were off-field indiscretions that led him once to admit publicly to an alcohol problem, but he overcame the issues and became part of the heartbeat of one of Australia's most successful teams. After the retirement of Ian Healy he took over as the man who led the singing of the victory song, passing it on when he assumed the captaincy.

With many lessons learned, Ponting's growing maturity was acknowledged by the ACB when he saw off competition from Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist to succeed Steve Waugh as Australia's one-day leader early in 2002. It was a seamless transition: Ponting led the successful 2003 World Cup campaign from the front, clouting a coruscating 140 not out in the final, and acceded to the Test crown when Waugh finally stepped down early in 2004. A broken thumb suffered in the Champions Trophy in England forced him to watch Gilchrist lead Australia's first series victory in India for 35 years from the dressing room, although he returned for the final Test. Batting-wise his first year as captain was one to forget, but he began his second with 207 against Pakistan, joining Don Bradman and Greg Chappell as the only Australians to reach four double-centuries.

By the time the eagerly-awaited 2005 Ashes series got underway the cracks in an almost invincible Australian side were beginning to appear. A humiliating one-day loss to Bangladesh caused the first ripple of dissent against his leadership style, and this grew as the contest progressed. A heroic 156 helped save the Old Trafford Test, but on September 12, 2005, Ponting became the first Australian captain since Allan Border in 1986-87 to taste defeat in an Ashes series. The result hurt and the pain lingered throughout the next summer, but he regrouped and reglued to start an amazing streak of 16 wins in 17 Tests, culminating in the 5-0 demolition of England to regain the urn in the most emphatic way. However, the summer was tarnished slightly when England handed Australia their first tri-series finals loss for 14 years and he missed the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy defeat with a back injury. In the Tests Ponting was Man of the Series as Australia became the first team in 86 years to achieve an Ashes cleansweep and his 576 runs at 82.28 confirmed him as the game's modern master.

Waugh believes his successor will hold the game's run-scoring record when he retires. The world's leading strokeplayer, he finished 2005 with 1544 runs and posted twin hundreds three times in five months, joining Sunil Gavaskar as the only other man to achieve the feat, and the double effort in his 100th Test at the SCG was magnificent. He followed up with another 1333 runs in 2006 and owns more centuries than anyone but Sachin, Brian and Sunny. Frighteningly, he is far from finished.