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Border down, Lara and Tendulkar to go. Ricky Ponting – Australia’s second-best batsman of all time – has cemented his place in Test history by becoming the nation’s leading run-scorer.
Inferior only to Bradman for his batting feats, Ponting eclipsed Allan Border’s national record of 11,174 when he moved to 25 in the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston.
Border held the record for 22 years. Ponting should have it in his keeping for even longer, probably for eternity considering the clouded future of Test cricket.
The current Australian skipper will now chase India’s little master Sachin Tendulkar (12,773*) for the overall Test record.
Arguments will rage that the boy from Mowbray doesn’t deserve to be rated alongside Border nor the likes of Neil Harvey and Greg Chappell who were named ahead of the nuggety Queenslander in the Australian team of the century in 2000.
Statistically, the numbers argue an extremely strong case for Ponting.
The Tasmanian averages 56.39, above Chappell (53.86), and left-handers Border (50.56) and Harvey (48.41).
Bradman (99.94) is the only Australian who has better.
In fact, of those to score more Test runs than the Don (6996), a mere two – West Indian great Garfield Sobers (57.78) and England’s Wally Hammond (58.45) – average better than Ponting.
Tendulkar and Brian Lara, the only two men ahead of the 34-year-old on the run-scoring list, boast 54.48 and 52.88 respectively.
Sure, Ponting has enjoyed an advantage over Chappell, Border and particularly Harvey thanks to better bats, roped boundaries and facing up in the world’s best team throughout his 134-Test career.
Critics will also argue he never had to face Glenn McGrath or Shane Warne and has a statistical blackspot in India (20.85 in 12 Tests) where he has struggled against the spinning ball on their low, dusty pitches.
But Harvey never consistently showed his best in England (33 in 17 Tests), Chappell went through a horror patch late in his career, and the gutsy Border rarely batted as high and couldn’t claim to match his scoring ability or flair.
A stylish swashbuckler, Ponting has batted at first-drop for the bulk of his career, tamed all attacks, produced all the shots and looked as good as they come. Vulnerable to the swinging ball early, yes, but no batsman isn’t.
Border’s advocates point to the value of his runs, always fighting with his back to the wall in a struggling side for the first decade of his Test career.
His ability to stand up to the famed West Indian pace attack built his reputation.
But should Ponting, the best puller and hooker in the modern game, be marked down because he never had the chance to pit his batting against the chin music of Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding and friends?
If you had a time machine, he would be the man you zapped back to the Caribbean in early 1984.
Chappell, for one, rates Ponting superior to himself.
“I’d be more than happy to have played like him,” he told AAP.
“He’s been one of the three stand-out batsman of his era with Tendulkar and Lara.
“He would rate highly in any era but comparing eras is not one for me to do. I don’t have the answers to that.
“He’s an outstanding player with an all-round game and has taken on one of the more difficult batting positions at No.3 and throw in the captaincy as well he’s been able to handle it all and perform consistently.”
Border was in little doubt about Ponting’s standing.
“I think in my mind he’ll end up being the number two batsman behind Donald Bradman,” Border said on Fox Sports.
Ponting has always had a fantastic technique.
Rod Marsh spotted it immediately at the Cricket Academy, rating him the best teenage batsmen he’d ever seen before Ponting debuted in the Sheffield Shield at 17.
By 20 he’d played his first Test, scoring 96 before being fired out leg before in a dreadful umpiring decision.
Apart from a terrible Indian tour in 2001, before his move to No.3, the fiesty right-hander was a regular run-maker who grabbed the baton from Stephen Waugh as Australia’s premier batsman.
His captaincy may be questioned, particularly if he leads his team to a second straight Ashes loss in England, but Ponting’s batting can never be.
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