When you talk about the greatest captains of all-time, many names come to our mind, like Clive Lloyd, Kapil Dev, Steve Waugh, Imran Khan, Sourav Ganguly, Graeme Smith, etc but two names which generally stand out are those of MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting.
Both these players have been great ambassadors of the sport in their respective nations and have led their respective national teams to almost every silverware there is. While Ponting has led Australia to two Cricket World Cup wins in 2003 and 2007 in addition to as many Champions Trophy victories in 2006 and 2009, Dhoni has led India to victories at each and every ICC tournament once, including the World T20 which has eluded Ponting and Australia.
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Both captains have had highly successful stints with their teams as both players and captains but the question still arises, “Who is the better of the two?”
Here’s a little numerical comparison between two of the greatest captains of all-time, MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting.
#1. Overall Record
Both Dhoni and Ponting have spent the majority of their cricketing careers as the captain of their national teams and occupy the top two spots for the most number of international matches as captain. Dhoni has led India on 331 occasions, seven more than Ricky Ponting who has led Australia in 324 matches.
Dhoni has led in more T20Is than any other player with 72 matches as captain, 16 more than second-placed William Porterfield, and 55 more than Ricky Ponting who only played and captained Australia in 17 T20Is.
Dhoni overtook Sourav Ganguly as the most successful Test captain of India as well as Mohammad Azharuddin as the most successful ODI captain of India. Similarly, Ricky Ponting also bettered the records of Steve Waugh in both Test and ODI cricket although his win percentage in Tests is less than that of Waugh.
| Span | Matches Captained | Won | Lost | Drawn | Win Percentage | |
| MS Dhoni | 2008-2014 | 60 | 27 | 18 | 15 | 45% |
| Ricky Ponting | 2004-2011 | 77 | 48 | 16 | 13 | 62.33% |
| Span | Matches Captained | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Win Percentage | |
| MS Dhoni | 2007-2016 | 199 | 110 | 74 | 4 | 11 | 59.57% |
| Ricky Ponting | 2002-2012 | 230 | 165 | 51 | 2 | 12 | 76.14% |
| Span | Matches Captained | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Win Percentage | |
| MS Dhoni | 2007-2016 | 72 | 41 | 28 | 1 | 2 | 59.28% |
| Ricky Ponting | 2005-2009 | 17 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 41.17% |
| Span | Matches Captained | Won | Lost | Tied | Drawn | NR | Win Percentage | |
| MS Dhoni | 2007-2016 | 331 | 178 | 120 | 5 | 15 | 13 | 53.78% |
| Ricky Ponting | 2002-2012 | 324 | 220 | 77 | 2 | 13 | 12 | 67.90 |
#2. ICC events
This is where the comparison becomes exciting as both are brilliant exponents of leadership when it comes to ICC events.
Dhoni and Ponting have represented their national teams in 13 ICC tournaments with the former leading India at 10 tournaments (the most for any captain)- two World Cups, two Champions Trophies, and all the World T20s so far while the latter has led Australia at 9 ICC tournaments- three World Cups, 4 Champions Trophies, and two World T20s.
| Tournaments captained | Matches captained | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Win Percentage | |
| MS Dhoni | 2011, 2015 | 17 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 82.35% |
| Ricky Ponting | 2003, 2007, 2011 | 29 | 26 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 89.65% |
Ponting led his team to back-to-back World Cup wins in 2003 and 2007 where the Kangaroos were unbeaten, the only team to have won the World Cup without losing a match (Sri Lanka had no losses during the 1996 World Cup but their group stage win against Australia was a walkover).
Both of Ponting’s defeat in the World Cup as a captain came during the 2011 World Cup where Australia first lost to Pakistan, thus ending their 12-year winning streak at the tournament before being eliminated by India in the quarter-finals.
Dhoni charismatically led the Indian team to victory at the 2011 World Cup and also led India to the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup where they were beaten by eventual champions Australia. There has been only one occasion when Dhoni and Ponting have crossed paths at the World Cup as skippers and the former’s side emerged victorious.
Both Dhoni and Ponting were awarded the Man of the Match in their first World Cup final as captain.
| Tournaments captained | Matches captained | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Win Percentage | |
| Dhoni | 2009, 2013 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 75% |
| Ponting | 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009 | 16 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 75% |
Both captains have the same win percentage here and like the Cricket World Cup, India and Australia met only once during the Champions Trophy with Dhoni and Ponting at the helm of affairs. It was in 2009, when the match was abandoned due to rain during Australia’s 43rd over.
Ricky Ponting has led Australia in four editions of the Champions Trophy with Australia reaching the semi-finals in the first two tournaments and going on to win the whole thing during the next two.
Dhoni’s first Champions Trophy as captain wasn’t a very fruitful one as India were knocked out in the first round. However, Dhoni went on to lead a young Indian side to victory at the 2013 Champions Trophy which made him the only captain to win all three ICC trophies.
| Tournaments captained | Matches captained | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Win Percentage | |
| Dhoni | 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 | 33 | 20 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 60.61% |
| Ponting | 2007, 2009 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 37.5% |
This is the one area where Dhoni has bettered Ponting comprehensively. Even if we consider the tournaments featuring both Dhoni and Ponting, Dhoni is still up ahead with a win percentage of 54.54 compared to Punter’s 37.5% in World T20s.
Dhoni led a young Indian team to victory at the inaugural World T20 in South Africa in 2007 which was his first stint as the skipper. He also led the Men In Blue to the final in 2014 and to the semi-finals during last year’s tournament with India losing to Sri Lanka and West Indies respectively.
Ponting’s World T20 record is a very dismal one. He did lead Australia to the semi-finals of the 2007 World T20 but it also included an embarrassing defeat to Zimbabwe in Australia’s tournament opener in addition to the Super 8 defeat against Pakistan and the semi-final loss to India.
Ponting’s second World T20 would be his last as Australia went on to lose both their group matches against West Indies and Sri Lanka and were knocked out of the tournament. This was the first time since the 2000 Champions Trophy that Australia were knocked out in the opening round of an ICC tournament.
#3. Away Record
| Span | Matches Captained | Won | Lost | Drawn | Win Percentage | |
| Dhoni | 2009-2014 | 30 | 6 | 15 | 9 | 20% |
| Ponting | 2004-2010 | 38 | 19 | 11 | 8 | 50% |
Ponting is the clear winner here with a percentage of 50 compared to Dhoni’s 20. India did come out on top when they faced a Ponting-led Australia under the leadership of Dhoni on all three occasions but then again, those matches were held at India’s home ground. Dhoni and Ponting never had a chance to cross paths in any Test match in Australia.
| Span | Matches Captained | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Win Percentage | |
| Dhoni | 2008-2016 | 126 | 67 | 48 | 3 | 8 | 53.18% |
| Ponting | 2002-2011 | 140 | 103 | 29 | 2 | 6 | 73.57% |
Both players have led their respective teams to victories in most of the ODIs they captained but the Australian once again comes out on top with an impressive win percentage of 73.57%.
| Span | Matches Captained | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Win Percentage | |
| Dhoni | 2007-2016 | 52 | 31 | 18 | 1 | 2 | 59.62% |
| Ponting | 2005-2009 | 13 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 23.08% |
Here, Dhoni is the undisputed winner with a win percentage close to 60%, bettering Ponting’s meagre 23.08%. To make it a little fairer, Dhoni’s win percentage until Ponting’s days as T20 skipper (i.e till the 2009 World T20) was 43.75%.
The only time India and Australia faced each other at a neutral venue under the leadership of MSD and Punter was during the 2007 World T20 where India beat Australia by 14 runs.
#4. Home Record
Under Dhoni’s leadership, India were nearly invincible at home. This is an aspect where he has bettered the likes of Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Azharuddin. Australia have also been pretty impressive with Ponting at the helm for so many years.
| Span | Matches Captained | Won | Lost | Drawn | Win Percentage | |
| Dhoni | 2008-2013 | 30 | 21 | 3 | 6 | 70% |
| Ponting | 2004-2010 | 39 | 29 | 5 | 5 | 74.36% |
Both players have been brilliant skippers at home as seen by the numbers. Ponting edges out Dhoni in this one because even if we take Ponting’s first 30 Tests as captain, he won 24 of them which makes his win percentage 80% compared to Dhoni’s 70%.
| Span | Matches Captained | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Win Percentage | |
| Dhoni | 2007-2016 | 73 | 43 | 26 | 1 | 3 | 58.90 |
| Ponting | 2002-2012 | 89 | 61 | 22 | 0 | 6 | 68.54% |
Ponting once again gets the better of Dhoni on this one, having won nearly 69% of all his ODI matches as captain at home compared to MSD’s 58.9%.
| Span | Matches Captained | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Win Percentage | |
| Dhoni | 2007-2016 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 50% |
| Ponting | 2006-2009 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
Since Ponting has captained only 1/5th of the number of matches that Dhoni has led at home, it is not totally fair to judge both players. However, MS Dhoni won two out of first four T20Is as captain at home while Ricky Ponting has led Australia to victory in all of his four games as T20I captain at their home turf.
#5. Performances as Captain
| Span | Matches Captained | Innings | Runs | 100s/50s | Average | HS | |
| Dhoni | 2008-2014 | 60 | 96 | 3454 | 5/24 | 40.63 | 224 |
| Ponting | 2004-2010 | 77 | 140 | 6542 | 19/35 | 51.51 | 209 |
| Span | Matches Captained | Innings | Runs | 100s/50s | Average | HS | |
| Dhoni | 2007-2016 | 199 | 171 | 6633 | 6/47 | 53.92 | 139* |
| Ponting | 2002-2012 | 230 | 220 | 8497 | 9/51 | 42.91 | 164 |
| Span | Matches Captained | Innings | Runs | 100s/50s | Average | HS | |
| Dhoni | 2007-2016 | 72 | 62 | 1112 | 0/0 | 37.06 | 48* |
| Ponting | 2005-2009 | 17 | 16 | 401 | 0/2 | 28.64 | 98* |
Ricky Ponting’s numbers are better MSD in both Tests and ODIs. The reason being the Australian was a top order batsman while Dhoni more of a number six or seven. These two are the top two highest run-scorers as captain in ODI cricket.
Dhoni and Ponting have both produced some scintillating performances with the bat during their tenure as captain, including match-winning knocks in World Cup finals.
Dhoni’s amazing finishing ability towards the death has mostly resulted in him ending the innings unbeaten hence his average is pretty high compared to that of Ponting. Punter’s highest ODI score of 164 came while he was the skipper albeit in a losing cause.
Dhoni’s highest score while captaining in ODIs is an unbeaten 139 off 121 deliveries against Australia in 2013.
In Tests, Ponting is the third highest run-scorer as captain with 6542 runs at an impressive average of 51.51 with a high score of 209 against Pakistan while Dhoni is the top-scoring Indian captain in Test cricket with 3454 runs at an average of 40.64 with his highest score being a 240-ball 224 against Australia at Chennai in 2013.
In T20Is, MSD is the highest run-scorer as captain with 1112 runs at an average of 37 with a high score of 48. Ponting has scored only 401 runs in T20Is but has two half-centuries to his name with his highest score being an unbeaten 98.
#6. Conclusion
MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting have both been two of the greatest captains in World Cricket, leading their respective teams to plenty of ICC silverware.
Dhoni has won every single ICC Trophy as a captain while Ponting has won two of them. However, Ponting’s numbers have been a lot more convincing compared to those of Dhoni’s in Tests and ODIs, particularly the away record.
The T20 records of both cannot be compared since Ponting never got the opportunity to play as much T20s as Dhoni due to the Aussie being in his mid-30s by the time T20Is became prevalent.
Hence, to sum it all up, Ponting and Dhoni are two of the world’s greatest cricketing leaders but looking at their numbers, it can be inferred that Ricky Ponting is a relatively better skipper.
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