Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting had all the ingredients of a typical Australian - tough as nails, aggressive, vocal and above all, mentally powerful to tackle pressure situations. The best quality about Ponting was his burning desire to win matches and at times, the desperation did bring up infamous incidents but what shone through his career was the sheer desire to be victorious. Three World Cup titles including two consecutive ones as captain to go with a couple of Champions Trophy titles and the no.1 Test ranking shows that he had seen it all in the international arena. Adding to all this was of course his free-wheeling strokeplay as a batsman, amassing runs at will and destroying opposition bowlers. The only title that eluded him was the World T20 but one could argue that the format came around the time that Ponting was in his final years.

A young and raw Ricky Ponting burst into the international arena in the year 1995 as he debuted in both the formats. He had garnered a big reputation in the domestic circuit for having the ability to produce the big runs and most people were in awe of his skill set. However, disciplinary issues were equally prevalent with Ricky back then and it did hound him in the initial years of his international career as well. But, he managed to pick himself up and from the 1998-99 season, started to mature steadily into a top flight batsman. Having started out as a middle order batsman, he also started to take ownership of the pivotal number three slot which he would make iconic in the years to follow.

A highlight of Ponting's batting was the sheer intent he had, right from the first ball. It wouldn't necessarily be an aerial shot, would just be that positive trigger movement forward and he didn't mind playing the pull/hook shot even off the front foot with incredible ease. In fact, that stroke went onto become Ponting's signature shot in his career. He rarely let the bowlers to dictate terms and most of the times, bullied them into submission. His upward spike as a batsman meant that the leadership role wasn't far away. With Steve Waugh declining, captaincy finally came to Ponting in 2002 when he was at the peak of his powers as a batsman. Over the next 5 years, not only did he as a captain win consecutive World Cups and Champions Trophy titles, but also went up to another level as a batsman.

From 2002-2007, Ponting smashed an insane 41 international centuries across formats - testimony of the dominance he had over the bowlers. Apart from the limited-overs glory, Australia were also ruthless in Tests, carrying forward the legacy created by Steve Waugh. However, it wasn't all rosy for Ricky, especially in the longest format where the pain of losing the Ashes series happened to him thrice. It wasn't hard to understand the fact that he enjoyed captaining in the shorter format more as his creativity worked well in white-ball cricket whereas in Tests, his tactics were mostly revolving around the starry bowling attack. Once the senior bowlers left, Ponting started to feel the heat and although the story was similar in ODIs, he had a better grip over proceedings.

After the 2011 World Cup where Australia were eliminated in the quarterfinal, Ponting stood down from leadership and Michael Clarke was thrust to the role for all formats. 'Punter' as he is fondly called, barely played any games after giving up captaincy and bid farewell to international cricket in the 2012-13 home series against South Africa. His last year for Australia was fidgety, as is the case with most ageing players and hence, wasn't able to end on a high. Nevertheless, Ponting's contributions are invaluable to Australian cricket and he remains the second best batsman ever produced by the country after the Don. Apart from the several silverware that we won, there were a plethora of records that he created which may be tough if not impossible to break.

At the time of his retirement, Ponting was only second to Sachin Tendulkar in terms of total international runs and centuries. A true legend of the game, Ricky even played a part in the IPL although not much with much individual success. After a few torrid years with KKR, he shifted to MI where he even opened with Tendulkar - a rare feast for cricket lovers. However, Ponting soon realized that he wasn't adjusting well enough to the format and gave up captaincy to become a mentor of the side. That same season MI won their first ever IPL trophy and Ponting coached them to their second one in 2015. Ponting harbors hopes of coaching the Australian team and has even been a stop-gap replacement at times, especially in T20s. When not doing such assignments, he works as TV commentator and is a delight to listen.

By Hariprasad Sadanandan