Ricky Ponting's Captaincy Era Comes to an End

(Ricky Ponting with the 2 ODI World Cups that Australia won under his captaincy)

In the International format of cricket, there have been captains who haven’t even won a single ICC Trophy and are yet considered as one of the top captains of the era. But where are you going to rank someone who has got 4 ICC Trophies to his name under his own captaincy? This is the story of Ricky Ponting who finally decided to step down from the captaincy on 28th March 2011 after their team was knocked out of the tournament in the 2011 ODI World Cup. However, throughout his career, he managed to win 2 ODI World Cups, 2 Champions Trophy, and the 2007 Ashes series where Australia came out at the top by 5-0. His captaincy record shows how good a tactician he was on the field and how well he contributed to the dominance of Australian cricket.

Ricky Ponting’s Captaincy Career

The year was 2001-02 when the Australian team was going through a rough patch in the ODI format and hence Steve Waugh was dropped from the team to get into a transition phase. Ricky Ponting was awarded the captaincy of the team while Adam Gilchrist was given the vice-captaincy and hence they had to settle a team for the upcoming ODI World Cup in 2003. In the bilateral series against Pakistan and South Africa, Ponting showed his class as a captain and even made his role prominent in the batting lineup too.

He went on to create a team of top players like Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds, Glenn McGrath, and others who played well for the team in the edition. Moreover, Ricky Ponting himself posted a century in the ODI World Cup Finals against India and helped them to lift their 3rd ODI World Cup. After his success in the ODI Format, Australia appointed Ricky Ponting as their Test Captain and he had the big task of winning the 2005 Ashes against England at their home.

(Ricky Ponting at the toss for Australia in his debut game of captaincy)

However, the start of his test captaincy wasn’t an ideal event for him as Australia lost the Ashes for the first time since 1987 and it got widespread anger from the Australian public. But Ponting again bounced back to the occasion and against the World XI, Australia put up a complete show to get their dominant nature back and the side started preparing for the 2006 Champions Trophy where Australia managed to win it in India and hence Ponting got 2 ICC Trophies in just 3 years of his captaincy career.

After the success in the 2006 Champions Trophy, it was time again for an ODI World Cup in 2007. The Australian team was eyeing their third straight ODI World Cup and hence they managed to have a hat-trick of it. The side won all their league matches in the tournament and then went on to claim the Cup by defeating Sri Lanka in the Finals. Ricky Ponting became the second captain to have two ODI World Cups as a captain of the team.

Coming to the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa, Australia managed to make it to the Semi-Finals of the tournament as they lost against India by 15 runs. Ricky Ponting had a chance to complete his ICC Trophies cabinet as a captain but failed on that occasion. But the Ashes in 2007 proved to be way bigger for the Australian team as they clinched the trophy 5-0 at their home and Ponting got the status of a legendary captain in Australia.

(Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson with the 2009 Champions Trophy)

The year 2009 proved to be a mixed one for Ricky Ponting in terms of captaincy. He had a great Champions Trophy tournament and earned his 4th and final ICC Trophy as a captain when Australia defeated New Zealand by 6 wickets to lift the trophy. But the 2009 Ashes series loss was a hard one for Ricky Ponting as despite having one of the best teams in the world, they failed to deliver against England in that year.

After losing the Ashes series, there was a hard time for Ricky Ponting but still Australia was confident and went with him as the captain for the 2010-11 Ashes that was played in Australia. However, this even proved another disaster for him as a captain as Australia lost the series at home for the first time since 1987 and hence there were talks of removing Ricky Ponting from captaincy to make sure he managed to bat well for the team in the upcoming series.

The 2011 ODI World Cup was looking like the final assignment for him and hence Australia named him as the captain of the team despite having a poor record in India. However, considering his batting, the World Cup wasn’t as good for him. He managed to score just 206 runs from the 6 innings played including a century in the Quarter-Finals against India. However, the team lost in the Quarter-Finals and hence were eliminated from the tournament and the streak of Australia in the World Cup was broken. After 1999, the world got a new ODI World Cup champion and it was the Indian team that took on the reins from there on.

Resignation from Captaincy

After the exit from the ODI World Cup, Ricky Ponting knew that it was the perfect time to give the captaincy to someone who could handle the transition phase for the Australian team. This is where he left the ODI and Test captaincy of the Australian team and made Michael Clarke as the full-time captain of the side. In the 9 years of captaincy, Ricky Ponting became one of the most successful captains of the world as he led Australia in 322 matches throughout the formats and helped Australia win a total of 219 matches which included 2 ODI World Cups and 2 Champions Trophy as the 4 ICC events. Furthermore, he was the captain of the team in 29 ODI World Cup matches and he managed to win 26 of them while losing just 2 matches.

FORMAT	MATCHES	WON	LOST	DRAWN	NO RESULT	WIN%
Tests	77	48	16	13	–	62%
ODIs	230	165	51	2	12	77%
T20Is	17	7	10	0	0	41%

Talking about batting under his own captaincy, he was a beast for the team as the number 3 spot was sealed by him. Having 8497 runs in the 220 innings played in the ODI Format, he averaged 42.91 while in the test format, he had 6542 runs from the 140 innings played by him. With a total of 41 centuries in his captaincy career, he finally ended the route as one of the best captains to lead a side.

FORMAT	RUNS	INNINGS	AVERAGE	100S	50S	HIGH SCORE
ODI	8497	220	42.91	22	51	164
TEST	6542	140	51.51	19	35	209
T20I	401	16	28.64	0	2	98*

On November 29, 2012, Ricky Ponting dropped a bombshell, revealing his plan to step away from Test cricket after the forthcoming WACA test against South Africa. His decision marked the end of an era in cricket. Ponting's announcement received widespread attention and admiration, with fans and fellow cricketers acknowledging his remarkable career.