Is Ponting really that great?

[umpire]

When quality fast bowlers were around in 90s, this dude was average in 40s. He could not make enough runs against Ambrose, Walsh, Donald etc. Once these dudes retired, he started to score tons of runs. Now newbie like Ishant has made him hop. He does seem to struggle against quality pace bowling. I would not put him in top bracket consisting of Tendulkar and Lara. No never. Australia media/players have commented that he is best australian batsman after Bradman. I say "My Foot", that would be Steve Waugh. Ponting is no where close. Ponting has just been benefited that two of the greatest bowlers of his era were his teammates. Do you guys think he can play Warnie and McGrath. No way!! Lucky SOB. Now just wait, Dale Steyn will make him hop too.

[Rajiv]

Don't see the pont of this thread, any cricketer with 10K runs had to be good

[umpire]

yeah but he has been put alongside Laras, Sachins and Bradmans, which he does not deserve.

[Online]

Runs are runs - no matter whom they are scored against. He is definitely a good bat - Inshallah he will continue to struggle against us.

[umpire]

Did i even deny that he is not a good bat. Just don't want him to be classified in same bracket as Sachin and Lara.

[Sachinism]

Don't see the pont of this thread' date= any cricketer with 10K runs had to be good

exactly may not be as great as Aussies think, but he is a very very good player, who is just struggling against India

[King]

No one puts the likes of Ponting, Dravid, Kallis with the likes of Lara and Tendulkar. Tendulkar and Lara are the two best in the contemporary cricket followed by the likes of Ponting, Dravid and the likes. Still Ponting is one of the all time greats if not the best. Everyone struggles at times. Even the likes of Rahul Dravid struggled against a new like Mendis. Tendulkar has had his own issues. Lara was never comfortable against Srinath. There isn't a batsman I have known or seen that has not struggled against certain bowlers or certain type of deliveries.

[Fontaine]

Ponting is a great cricketer but you have to give credit to guys like Ishant. There's absolutely no batsmen in the world who could have survived the wicket taking deliveries Ishant bowled no matter how many runs they've scored. It's on of the reasons why Ishant was up for ICC honors.

[flamy]

Well... he will soon overtake Tendu. So... :((

[anbuchelvan]

Ponting will be ranked number 1 in cheaters list.Claiming bounced catches,using synthetic bat etc.

[SachDan]

Ponting is not in the same league as Sachin or Lara..As Ravi rightly pointed out he's in the 2nd level along with Dravid and Waugh. As for the 2nd best Australian batsman..its none other than Greg Chappell.

[King Tendulkar]

Well... he will soon overtake Tendu. So... :((

No he wont! Mark my words ponting will retire before sachin

[Shane]

Yes !!! He is ! however hard it is for us to take

[SachDan]

Well... he will soon overtake Tendu. So... :((

Its not that easy as it seems..Punter is still almost 2000 runs short of Sach...and all indications are that Sach will continue playing till 2011 WC..he might finish with 13500 runs. Mind you even Ponting is nearing his 34th birthday and life after 35 in Australian cricket set up is a bit dicey.

[SachDan]

No he wont! Mark my words ponting will retire before sachin

May be together at 2011 WC!!

[bunny]

No one puts the likes of Ponting' date=' Dravid, Kallis with the likes of Lara and Tendulkar. .[/quote'] And why not?

[The Outsider]

Ponting's future depends a lot on how this series and then the 2 series against South Africa and then the Ashes go. If he loses 2 out of these 4 series, he'll be dropped from captaincy for sure and how long he will survive after that is anyone's guess. He is averaging less than Tendulkar in fact over since after the 2nd Ashes test of 2006 and has scored much fewer runs as well......so the centuries and runs gap has actually increased since then. Even if Tendulkar were to retire tomorrow which won't happen, he'll play for another 15-20 tests atleast Ponting will need another 25+ tests to overhaul him on current form. Not clear cut at all.

[Shane]

Ponting's future depends a lot on how this series and then the 2 series against South Africa and then the Ashes go. If he loses 2 out of these 4 series, he'll be dropped from captaincy for sure and how long he will survive after that is anyone's guess. He is averaging less than Tendulkar in fact over since after the 2nd Ashes test of 2006 and has scored much fewer runs as well......so the centuries and runs gap has actually increased since then. Even if Tendulkar were to retire tomorrow which won't happen, he'll play for another 15-20 tests atleast Ponting will need another 25+ tests to overhaul him on current form. Not clear cut at all.

Right about the future series and his future as captain depends on their outcomes, but thats his captaincy, as a player he is still one of the best players of fast bowling that the Aussies have, and he enjoys playing against the Kiwis and the Proteas against whom he averages 63 and 71 respectively(48 against England), India has however always been a problem for Punter, so with age on his side and unless there is a drastic loss in form he looks well on his way to beat Sachins record, all i can pray for is Sachin plays atleast till the 2011 WC and some Triple Hundreds :winky: would do nicely in retaning the record !!!

[Dinx - the Jinx]

The topic of this thread I guess is to question whethher Ponting is such a great player as it might look like or the way Aussie media have played it so far... In my opinion, he is not that great against all countries. Look at Sachin and Lara. They have sclored consistently against all countries, whereas Ponting has been scoring heavily only against NZ and SA and to an extent ENG. As pointed out in the 1st post of this thread, he had been lucky to be in the World Beating Australian side. Seldom was he put in the pressure of playing for a draw or pulling the team out of a hole. Most of the times, Hayden and Langer would have given a rock solid start and all this guy had to do was to come in and slay the already battered bowlers... There is one thing playing for a winning team and completely different playing for teams like India with so much of pressure... In that perspective alone, the thousands of runs and the heaps of centuries that ponting has scored cannot qualify to be pitted against those by Sachin or Lara. My final coimment is - he is just slightly above average player with luck on his side... The whole world has seen how he wilts under pressure, when faced with stiff challenge.. It happened in 2005 Ashes, it happened at Sydney and Perth last year and its happening now... Ponting is going down hill along with Australia

[Fontaine]

The topic of this thread I guess is to question whethher Ponting is such a great player as it might look like or the way Aussie media have played it so far... In my opinion, he is not that great against all countries. Look at Sachin and Lara. They have sclored consistently against all countries, whereas Ponting has been scoring heavily only against NZ and SA and to an extent ENG. As pointed out in the 1st post of this thread, he had been lucky to be in the World Beating Australian side. Seldom was he put in the pressure of playing for a draw or pulling the team out of a hole. Most of the times, Hayden and Langer would have given a rock solid start and all this guy had to do was to come in and slay the already battered bowlers... There is one thing playing for a winning team and completely different playing for teams like India with so much of pressure... In that perspective alone, the thousands of runs and the heaps of centuries that ponting has scored cannot qualify to be pitted against those by Sachin or Lara. My final coimment is - he is just slightly above average player with luck on his side... The whole world has seen how he wilts under pressure, when faced with stiff challenge.. It happened in 2005 Ashes, it happened at Sydney and Perth last year and its happening now... Ponting is going down hill along with Australia

I agree that he's had the benefit of having an awesome team for years with Warne, McGrath, Martin etc but as an individual there's no way Ponting is just an above average player. Take a look at the way he grafted for that century, built it brick by brick by being patient and so disciplined as to not lose his wicket against guys like Sharma/Bhajji. That was an innings of class. I know it looks really, really bad when a guy gets out consistently against someone like Sharma but go take a look at the dismissal again. Ponting did everything right. He even took a huge stride forward on the front foot to try and negate the movement early. Text book stuff. But he was beaten by an unplayable delivery. That much movement off the seam at 86 mph is ungodly. Even with perfect technique a batsmen can only play at the predicted line but with movement like that there is no defence. Just hope to get bat on the ball. There's no doubt he should have done better and adjusted to the movement and to his credit he did in the 1st test match, 1st innings but at this stage it's like Ishant has some sort of Ponting Voodoo doll in his locker which he takes out before each spell!!!