Captain's Corner: MS Dhoni vs Ricky Ponting

MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting are two of the most successful captains in the history of the sport

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.

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.

Test Captaincy Record

	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%

 

ODI Captaincy Record

	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%

 

T20I Captaincy Record

	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%

Overall Captaincy Record

	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