Whatever you want to say about Ricky Ponting’s captaining stats, his personal stats are and have continued to be phenomenal, and no one can take that from him.

It’s interesting to note that usually, great players that become captain feel the burden on their shoulders and their personal performance tends to suffer. Ricky’s often stellar show with the bat indicates to me that unlike other captains, the kinds of things that plague a skipper’s thoughts while he’s at the crease or running in for his next deliver don’t enter Ricky’s head. While these thoughts seem to effect better decisions throughout a match, they interfere with concentration. When a team is underperforming, someone has to stand up.

Agreed, selections have been worrisome over the past… 18-24 months. Still, Ponting has often saved an innings, but hasn’t saved a match. More than previous captains it has been as a result of poor decision making as captain from inside the five days of a given match, but recall that the side of late has either underperformed or simply been too inexperienced for him to do it all on his own. You can’t steer the ship, hoist the mast, batten the hatches and plug leaks with your buttocks all alone. In fact, one of the best things you can do is to boost morale with a strong hero performance, and that’s exactly what Ponting has done in this first Ashes test match for 2009.

The Ashes Urn - the most prized cricket trophy of all