Sydney – Ricky Ponting is Australia's all-time leading Test run-getter and a consummately dominant cricketer of the modern era, yet his decorated career may attract an unwanted asterisk in the coming Ashes series with England.
Only the 'Little Master' Sachin Tendulkar has amassed more Test runs but it is Ponting's captaincy that may yet besmirch his overall stature in cricket as he tries to avoid presiding over three Ashes series defeats.
Ponting already holds the dubious distinction of the first Australian captain in 119 years to lose two Ashes series in England.
Now as he leads a faltering Australia into the November-January Test series he confronts the real prospect that he could join 1880s predecessors Billy Murdoch and Percy McDonnell, who have a hat-trick of Ashes failures against England.
Ponting has won 47 of his 73 Tests as Australian skipper since March 2004, yet among his 14 defeats are series defeats to England (2), India (2) and South Africa at home.
In Ponting's defence he is captaining an Australian team still coming to terms with the seismic retirements of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, all of them immensely influential players.
In their absence Ponting, 36 next month, has become the bulwark of the Australian batting line-up, compiling 12,250 runs from his 148 Tests at an average of 54.69.
Only Tendulkar (49) has accumulated more centuries than Ponting, who is looking for his 40th hundred in the coming five Ashes Tests.
Ponting will be the prized wicket for the England bowlers, given his 15 years of sheer consistency at the top level.
He has scored eight centuries in 50 Ashes Test innings at an average of 48.22 and he is indispensable to Australia's chances of wresting back the Ashes they turned over in England last year.
Ponting will be aiming to give reassurance to his teammates by the weight of his runs.
If he gets starts and goes to make big scores, the confidence will ooze throughout the rest of the team.
“There's a lot of doom and gloom around about this team and about Australian cricket at the moment, and we all feel a lot more positive inside the dressing room than what it probably looks from the outside,” Ponting said.
“But the only way we can start changing what it looks like is to start winning games, and we're all very aware of that.”
Ponting flailed the English attack for 576 runs at 82.29 when Australia demolished England 5-0 in the last Ashes series here in 2006-07 and he amassed 417 at 52.13 in the 2002-03 home Ashes series.
Yet in a glimmer of hope for England, Ponting's last century came seven Tests ago, his 209 against Pakistan in Hobart last January.
This has not been one of his most productive years.
Michael Vaughan, who captained England to Ashes victory in 2005 when Ponting had Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist and Hayden in his side, is one who senses his former adversary's time is almost up.
“If he loses the series he will go,” Vaughan said. “He has lost the Ashes twice and hasn't won an Ashes in England either.
“Obviously he won the 06-07 Ashes 5-0 but he had a better team to manage those days but now he has a team that is almost back in the ranks of normal cricket teams.
“His record in Australia is phenomenal but he will have to be at his best, both as a captain and as a batsman, to put England under pressure.”
In any event former Australian skipper Ian Chappell thinks by April either Ponting will be removed or he’ll reach a right point to step down following a demanding playing schedule.
Ponting has already lost last month's series against the top-ranked Indians and now comes the Ashes series and the 2011 World Cup.
“If he fails in all three of the enormous challenges facing Australia, the selectors will probably be looking for a new leader,” Chappell said.
“If he succeeds – that would be the perfect time to call it a day.” – Sapa-AFP