[The Sean]

Originally Posted by CWB304

Ponting is not rated as being in the class of Lara and SRT. Not by his own teammates, not by the cricketing world in general. Either now or during his peak period. He cashed in for a handful of good years, but I saw his whole career and I know why he's not rated with those guys.

In fact I'd take both peak Sanga and peak Dravid over peak Ponting any day of the week. Those guys, as well as being far sounder technically, are flexible and capable of performing in all conditions. As we all know Punter is/was a walking wicket in certain conditions, and this has never really changed throughout his career. If you examine his shuffling across the wicket style critically, you can only wonder at how many times he would have got to fifty, let alone the spurt of huge scores that suddenly boosted his average by nearly 15 points in his years of plenty. Had DRS been available to opposing teams for the bulk of his career I am convinced he would have regularly been given out lbw for shuffling and attempting to whip thru midwicket before settling.

This thread isn't about Ponting.