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For the final middle-order spot in The Roar’s greatest Ashes XI of all time, we have a match-up between two former Australian skippers who didn’t mind getting into the contest.
Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. Both led successful Ashes campaigns – although Ponting never triumphed as captain in England – and both scored an awful lot of runs against the Old Enemy.
It was Ponting who polled better in our initial vote, picked in 36 per cent of teams, but his predecessor wasn’t far behind at all; 31 per cent of you picked Waugh in your XI.
In terms of sheer numbers, Ponting’s record against England might not be quite as good as you’d expect, given his standing as one of cricket’s great batsmen. In 35 Ashes Tests, his 2476 runs came at an average of 44.21, although he did score eight centuries and nine 50s. And he was, of course, at the helm when his Australian side became just the second team in history to record a 5-0 Ashes whitewash in 2006-07.
Waugh’s, though, is on another level. He’s one of only five men to have scored more than 3000 Ashes runs, with his 3200 coming at an average of 58.18. He also cracked double digits for number of tons scored against England with ten, and made a further 14 half-centuries. ‘Tugger’ also holds the distinction of having never lost an Ashes series as captain – although he admittedly had a pretty handy team to help him there.
Two Australian cricketing greats, two former captains, but only one can make the final team. Who’s it going to be: Ricky Ponting or Steve Waugh?
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