Ricky Ponting turns 46: A look at his memorable records
Australian maestro Ricky Ponting turned 46 on Saturday. Ponting is arguably the greatest batsman from Australia besides the great Sir Donald Bradman. Apart from his elegant stroke-play, Ponting was known for his aggressive brand of cricket, especially when leading. Over eight years after his international retirement, he still holds a number of astonishing records across formats. Here are Ponting's major records.
In a career spanning over 15 years, Ponting effectively reinforced the number three slot for Australia. He racked up 27,483 runs from 560 internationals at an impressive average of 45.95. While he has tallied over 13,000 runs in both ODI and Test cricket, he scored 401 in T20Is. Ponting also has a record 71 hundreds in international cricket.
Ponting still remains the highest run-scorer from Australia in Test and ODI cricket. Overall, he is the second-highest run-getter in Test cricket after Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar. Ponting owns 13,378 runs from 168 Tests, including 41 hundreds. He also has third-most most runs in ODI cricket after Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara, having amassed 13,704 from 375 matches at 42.03.
Ponting has led Australia to 165 wins in 230 matches, most by a captain in ODI cricket. His win percentage of 76.14 tops the tally. Moreover, he has won most number of Tests as captain for Australia (48). Notably, he is one of the two captains (besides Clive Lloyd) to win the ICC World Cup twice (2003 and 2007).
In Ponting's leadership, Australia gained big. They remained undefeated for 22 Tests from September 2005 to January 2008. This is the fourth-highest undefeated streak in the history of Test cricket. In 2008, India broke the deadlock by winning the Perth Test.
Ponting's batting graph surged after taking over the reigns from the great Steve Waugh. He is the leading run-scorer among captains across formats. In 324 internationals, he has aggregated 15,440 runs at a remarkable average of 45.54. Interestingly, Ponting is still the closest to Tendulkar in terms of international centuries. The Australian maestro owns 71 tons as compared to Tendulkar's 100.
