OTD | Ricky Ponting’s stint as Australia’s captain came to an end after being knocked out of ODI World Cup 2011

The ICC ODI World Cup 2011 took place in India. During the ICC 2011 ODI World Cup Australia led by Ricky Ponting and India led by MS Dhoni faced each other in the quarter-final of the World Cup. Going into the 2011 ICC ODI World Australia were defending champions.

The 2nd Quarter-final of the ICC ODI World Cup 2001 took place in Ahmedabad between the two giants India and Australia. After winning the toss, Australia decided to bat first. Going into the match India got an early breakthrough as Ravichandran Ashwin got Shane Watson’s wicket for just 25 runs. Ricky Ponting took the responsibility on his shoulders and scored 104 runs before getting caught and bowled to Ravichandran Ashwin. However, Australia posted a total of 260 runs for the chase.

In reply, India chased down the target as Yuvraj Singh scored 57 runs which helped India to win the match. Days after the loss against India in the quarter-final Ricky Ponting announced that he was stepping down as captain of Australia. Further, he stated that he took the decision on his own and no one forced him to do so.

After losing in the quarterfinal, he had to face a lot of criticism. He also added that he will be available for Test matches and ODI matches as a batter only. Ricky Ponting felt that it was the right time to give up the captaincy role and let other players take the responsibility.

“I have resigned as captain of both the Test and one-day Australian teams. I will continue to play and am available for selection in both the one-day and Test teams,” Ponting said. 

Under Ricky Ponting’s captaincy, Australia won two back-to-back ICC ODI World Cups in 2003 and 2007 and he also won ICC Champions Trophy in 2006. As Test captain for the Australia team, he won 48 Test out of 77 Test matches and in ODI he won 162 out of 228 matches. Within the history of cricket, Ricky Ponting is among the most successful captains. 

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