'If you don’t feel comfortable, it’s time for Ricky to go': Clarke explains how he fought to keep Ponting in Aus team
Ponting played 16 Tests under Clarke between 2011 and late 2012 and scored 1,015 runs. His average was 37.59, which is comparatively less than his career average.
Ricky Ponting is one of the best ever to play the game of cricket. The former Australian captain has amassed several batting records in cricket while his leadership skills have contributed heavily to the success of Australian cricket in the 2000s. Ponting was the captain of the Australian cricket team when they won the 2003 and 2007 World Cup.
_1621750605123_1621750621131.png "Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke. (Getty )")
Ponting played 375 ODIs for Australia and scored 13704 runs at an average of 42.04. Ponting also has 30 centuries and 82 fifties. Even in the Test format, Ponting has 13378 runs in 168 matches with 41 hundred.
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There is no doubt regarding the batting credentials of Ponting. However, there was a period when the team management was thinking of removing him from the team. Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke revealed that the selectors offered to drop Ponting if he did not feel comfortable having him in the squad. Clarke said he asked the selectors to keep Ponting due to his batting prowess.
“When I took over the captaincy, that’s why I fought to keep Ricky,” said Michael Clarke while speaking to former NRL star Brett Finch on his Uncensored podcast.
“The selectors said, ‘Very rarely does a captain stand down and stay in the team, so if you don’t feel comfortable … it’s time for Ricky to go’.
“I said, ‘We need him. We need him for his batting, but he’ll be another coach for us’. So I fought hard to keep him, I wanted him there. I thought he played a big part in helping that younger generation get to the level we needed to. If he was batting at 80 percent, he was better than anybody else at No. 3 or No. 4. We think the grass is greener all the time. Very rarely is it.”
Ponting played 16 Tests under Clarke between 2011 and late 2012 and scored 1,015 runs. His average was 37.59, which is comparatively less than his career average.
