Ricky Ponting and MS Dhoni are hailed as two of the most successful captains in the history of this game. Ricky Ponting, who took over the captaincy of the Australian cricket team after Steve Waugh, led the side from 2004 to 2011. Ponting led the Australian cricket team to two more World Cup titles in addition to winning one under the captaincy of Waugh in 1998. He made the Australian side a mighty force, especially in the longest format of the game. Apart from his captaincy, he also became one of the greatest batters of all time.
On the other hand, MS Dhoni, who took over the captaincy from Sourav Ganguly, went on to become the most successful skippers to have ever led the Indian cricket team. MS Dhoni led the Indian side in all formats of the game in 2008 and completely relinquished that position in 2017. He took the Indian cricket team to the number one position with his captaincy, having won all the major ICC trophies.
Recently, former Australian spinner Bradd Hogg, who has played for a number of years under the captaincy of Ricky Ponting, recently talked about both captains on his YouTube video and said that while it is difficult to separate both of them as captains, he would put Dhoni slightly above the Australian batting great because of the nature of both the teams they led. He said:
“Ricky Ponting had a wonderful team. MS Dhoni had a great team as well. For me, both did exceptionally well, both have got a fantastic record. You cannot separate them. I’d say that MS Dhoni probably had more politics to deal with in Indian cricket than what Ricky Ponting did. That probably puts Dhoni slightly in front of Ricky Ponting,”
He added: “The other thing with Ricky Ponting is he had a lot of cricketers around that were really experienced and knew their roles and knew what to do as well. He only had to control certain aspects of the game. Most of the attitudes of the players, the discipline of the players, the plans of the players knowing what to do, they all knew it.
“It’s a tough one, but MS Dhoni with the extra politics that he might have had in India, probably just puts him in front. Sorry, Ricky!”
Notably, Ponting had the likes of Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden, and Michael Clarke in his squad. But unlike Ponting, Dhoni didn’t inherit a well-oiled machine in any of the formats. Though, there were legendary players like Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, and Sachin Tendulkar in the Indian squad when Dhoni took over as captain in all formats, but they were all in the twilight of their careers. MS Dhoni brought a new revolution in Indian cricket and players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ravi Ashwin, all flourished under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.
