Ricky Ponting

Personal information
Full name Ricky Thomas Ponting
Born 19 December 1974 (1974-12-19) (age 35)
Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Nickname Punter
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Batting style Right-hand
Bowling style Right-arm medium
Right arm off break
Role Batsman, Australian Test and ODI captain
International information
National side Australia
Test debut (cap 366) 8 December 1995 v Sri Lanka
Last Test 13 July 2010 v Pakistan
ODI debut (cap 123) 15 February 1995 v South Africa
Last ODI 23 June 2010 v England
ODI shirt no. 14
Domestic team information
Years Team
1992 – Tasmania
2004 Somerset
2008 Kolkata Knight Riders
Career statistics
Competition Test ODIs FC List A
Matches 145 351 245 421
Runs scored 11,954 13,072 20,801 15,388
Batting average 54.83 42.85 57.46 42.50
100s/50s 39/51 29/79 73/89 33/94
Top score 257 164 257 164
Balls bowled 539 150 1,434 349
Wickets 5 3 14 8
Bowling average 48.40 34.66 54.85 33.62
5 wickets in innings 0 0 0 0
10 wickets in match 0 n/a 0 n/a
Best bowling 1/0 1/12 2/10 3/34
Catches/stumpings 172/– 152/– 261/– 184/

Ricky Thomas Ponting (born 19 December 1974 in Launceston, Tasmania), nicknamed Punter, is the current captain of the Australian cricket team. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler. He is regarded as one of Australia's finest cricketers in the modern era. He represents the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket and played in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008.

Ponting made his first-class debut for Tasmania in November 1992, when just 17 years and 337 days old, becoming the youngest Tasmanian to play in a Sheffield Shield match. However, he had to wait until 1995 before making his One Day International (ODI) debut, during a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand in a match against South Africa. His Test debut followed shortly after, when selected for the first Test of the 1995 home series against Sri Lanka in Perth, in which he scored 96. He lost his place in the national team several times in the period before early-1999, due to lack of form and discipline, before becoming One Day International captain in early-2002 and Test captain in early-2004.

After being involved in over 140 Tests and 350 ODIs, Ponting is Australia's leading run-scorer in Test and ODI cricket, with more than 25,000 international runs as of July 2010. He has scored 39 Test centuries—behind only Indian Sachin Tendulkar (48)[1]—and third for most runs in ODIs behind Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.