Numbers Game

Ponting's fall from stratospheric heights

He has done enough to contend for the Player of the Decade title, but Ricky Ponting's stats have fallen significantly over the last three years

S Rajesh
S Rajesh
08-Jan-2010
Another failure for Ricky Ponting, as he falls to Umar Gul in the second innings of the SCG Test  •  Getty Images

Another failure for Ricky Ponting, as he falls to Umar Gul in the second innings of the SCG Test  •  Getty Images

He has done enough to be one of the leading contenders for Cricinfo's Player of the Decade title, but Ricky Ponting himself will admit that over the last three years he has been significantly less than prolific. During a period in which batsmen have generally made merry, Ponting has scored only five hundreds in his last 32 Test matches - a rate of one every 6.4 matches - while the average has dropped to a distinctly ordinary 41.44. Contrast this with his stats in the first seven years of the decade - an average of 65.73, and a rate of a hundred every 2.81 Tests over 76 matches.
Due to this relative slump, Ponting's overall average has dropped around five points during this period. The peak point (in terms of end-of-match average) came after the second Test of the Ashes series in 2006, when he made 142 and 49 to boost his career average to 59.99. One more run would have lifted his average to 60, but he never reached that high thereafter, and over his next 34 matches it has fallen to 54.79. Ponting is far from finished as a top-class batsman, but it's unlikely his average will ever reach those peaks again.
A disappointing feature of his batting during these three years has been the inability to convert fifties into hundreds, a malaise that has afflicted the entire Australian team this summer. During his peak period, Ponting made 27 centuries and 26 fifties, but in the last three years he has scored almost three times as many half-centuries as centuries. The ratio of Tests to 50-plus scores isn't that different (1.43 then, 1.68 now), but the uncharacteristically poor conversion has meant the average has slipped significantly.
Ricky Ponting's Test career, in three parts
Period Tests Runs Average 100s/ 50s
Till Dec 31, 1999 33 2092 44.51 6/ 10
Jan 1, 2000 to 31 Dec 2006 76 7231 65.73 27/ 26
From Jan 1, 2007 32 2238 41.44 5/ 14
Career 141 11,561 54.79 38/ 50
With a cut-off of 1500 runs in the last three years, Ponting's average puts him in 27th place, a huge fall from the days when he dominated the charts. Among those who have higher averages than his 41.44 are Daniel Vettori (44.97), Alastair Cook (42.47) and Ross Taylor (42.15).
In fact, even in his own team, Ponting has slipped down the table. Among those who've scored more than 750 runs for Australia in the last three years, Ponting's average puts him in seventh place. Even Michael Hussey, whose struggles have been highlighted far more, has a better average, though admittedly his slump only started towards the end of 2008.
Australia's batsmen in Tests in the last three years
Batsman Tests Runs Average 100s/ 50s
Andrew Symonds 14 992 55.11 1/ 8
Michael Clarke 31 2449 53.23 8/ 12
Simon Katich 24 2132 52.00 6/ 12
Phil Jaques 9 806 50.37 3/ 5
Shane Watson 13 995 45.22 1/ 8
Michael Hussey 32 2240 43.07 6/ 11
Ricky Ponting 32 2238 41.44 5/ 14
Brad Haddin 24 1425 39.58 2/ 5
Matthew Hayden 15 942 37.68 3/ 2
Mitchell Johnson 31 916 27.75 1/ 4
Ponting's lack of runs has significantly weakened Australia's top-order batting, for he was a player who could, with equal skill, resurrect an innings after an early wicket or dominate after a strong opening stand. The next two tables examine his performances at No. 3 depending on the team score when he came in to bat. In the 16 innings in which he came in to bat with the first wicket falling before 20, Ponting averaged almost as much as his overall average during this period, which suggests he wasn't particularly susceptible to the new ball. He had a couple of particularly memorable knocks when he came in to bat in the first over of a series - against India in Bangalore in 2008, he scored 123 after Matthew Hayden fell third ball, and in Johannesburg last year he scored 83 after Phillip Hughes had been dismissed off the fourth ball.
When the openers put together 50 or more, Ponting's average improved, but only slightly, to 45.95.
Ponting at No. 3 since Jan 1, 2007
Entry score Innings Runs Average 100s/ 50s
less than 20 16 655 40.94 2/ 4
between 20 and 49 16 616 38.50 1/ 3
50 or more 23 965 45.95 2/ 7
Overall 55 2236 42.18 5/ 14
And here's how those numbers differ from his stats during his seven best years. The first row in the table below puts to rest the allegation that Ponting took shelter behind a strong opening combination and scored only when Hayden and Langer got the team off to a good start. In 27 innings Ponting came in at No. 3 when the first wicket had fallen for less than 10, and on eight of those instances he went on to score a century. Among the memorable knocks were 103 against South Africa in Durban after Hayden fell for a duck, and 117 against the same opponents in the Boxing Day Test in 2005. He averaged more than 67 in innings when the opening partnership added less than 10, and 50.55 when he came in with the score between 10 and 19.
Several of his huge knocks, though, came when the openers had got a bit of a start: all of his four double-hundreds came when the opening stand had yielded between 21 and 49. His 257 against India came after the openers added 30; the 242 in Adelaide followed an opening stand of 22, while his 207 against Pakistan and 206 against West Indies came after first-wicket partnerships of 26 and 49. His overall average in these innings following opening stands of between 20 and 49 was significantly higher than when the openers put together 50 or more.
Ponting at No. 3 between 2000 and Dec 31, 2006
Entry score Innings Runs Average 100s/ 50s
less than 10 27 1686 67.44 8/ 4
between 10 and 19 13 556 50.55 0/ 5
between 20 and 49 34 2637 87.90 11/ 7
50 or more 37 1802 64.36 7/ 6
Overall 111 6681 71.07 26/ 22
Ponting's poor form, coupled with the lack of runs from Hayden and Hussey, has brought down the batting average of Australia's top seven from 50.10 during the 2000-06 period to 44.77 in the last three years, which is lower than what Sri Lanka and India have averaged. That, coupled with the loss of a couple of bowling giants - their bowling average has increased from 27.46 to 33.16 during this period - has been enough to reduce Australia to third position in the Test rankings.
Team-wise batting averages of the top 7 in the last three years
Team Runs Average 100s/ 50s Ave from 2000 to 2006 100s/ 50s
Sri Lanka 12,981 49.54 39/ 51 39.08 68/ 127
India 16,615 48.15 40/ 91 41.28 69/ 139
Australia 15,984 44.94 40/ 87 50.10 134/ 171
South Africa 14,265 44.76 40/ 65 40.76 80/ 159
England 16,623 40.04 44/ 82 38.07 96/ 195
Pakistan 7729 36.37 13/ 41 40.63 79/ 136
West Indies 10,677 35.00 23/ 53 35.60 70/ 169
New Zealand 8698 30.20 12/4 5 34.44 41/ 102
Bangladesh 4808 22.15 3/ 19 22.36 10/ 64
Zimbabwe - - - 28.14 20/ 86

S Rajesh is stats editor of Cricinfo