Despite the fact that their times as captains of their respective teams may not have coincided much, MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting were two of the most successful captains in the first decade of the twenty-first century. While Ponting led Australia from 2004 to 2011, Dhoni served as the team’s captain for the Indian squad in all formats from 2008 till he fully stepped down in 2017.
Ponting led the all-conquering Australian side in the 2000s, demonstrating that he was a fitting successor to Steve Waugh. In addition to the 1998 World Cup victory under Waugh, Ponting led the squad to two additional victories. Under his direction, Australia was also one of the most challenging Test teams to play. Along with becoming one of the best batters of all time, Ponting’s team also included Michael Clarke, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden, and Shane Warne.
While it is challenging to distinguish the two as captains, former Australian spinner Brad Hogg, who played under Ponting for a lot of years, claimed that due to the character of the teams that the two inherited, he would place Dhoni slightly above the Australian batting legend. “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 records. You cannot separate them. I’d say that MS Dhoni probably had more politics to deal with in Indian cricket than Ricky Ponting did. That probably puts Dhoni slightly in front of Ricky Ponting,” said Hogg on his Youtube channel.
“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!”
