Since the times of Sir Don Bradman to the modern day great Steve Smith. Australia cricket team is one of the most consistent teams across the formats if we try to look after the Australia team of the 70s or 80s who were little average. Though there were interesting characters like Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in the 70s.
But back then in the times of Sir Don Bradman there was only the test cricket among the teams to define their greatness. With the time cricket has changed completely while in the 70s, the new format called as white-ball cricket was brought into this game which is also known as one-day cricket or 50-50 overs game.
This new form of cricket not only brought freshness but also distinguished the top teams among the associate nations across the formats. Number of World Cups have been hosted so far but there is one team who is the most successful is Australia with five world cups under their feathers.
When we talk about the golden era of cricket Australia it has different opinions some say the team of 1948 was the most complete Australia side ever. While towards more into the history the team of the early 19th century or 1921 team of Australia drew the conclusion they were far better. But again at that time there was only test cricket while over the years in cricket there have been different formats evolved.
In that sense, if we try to look back and believe which was the golden era of cricket Australia. It was definitely the late 90s to the early 2000 era led by captains Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting (aggressive captain) respectively. During the times of Steve Waugh the Australia team was into the transition phase but with the captaincy of Ricky Ponting the team reached to the surreal heights across the formats. Ricky Ponting is the second most successful test captain after Graeme Smith (who is still the first one).
Although Australia had the winning streak of 16 test matches under the captaincy of Steve Waugh. But the Australia team had unleashed themselves with the ruthless brand of cricket under the captaincy of Ricky Ponting like no other team in the history except the West Indies team of 70s to 80s. Some say Ponting was fortunate enough to have such a team who were boosted with genuine match-winners like Mathew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Bevan, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Andy Bichel.
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But it is not right to call him the fortunate captain of his era. As a captain Ponting has performed as a batsman along with the heavy task to lead his team against great test playing nations like team India, South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies and Pakistan. With over 10000 plus runs in test cricket and ODI cricket respectively. Ricky Ponting's average of 42.03 in ODI and 51.85 in tests easily defined the greatness of a punter by any margin of extent.
If we do not look into the career runs, Ricky Ponting was the part of three world cup winning campaigns of Australia in 1999 and as a captain in 2003 and 2007 (where they were undefeated throughout the world cup). Way before the T20 cricket in 2006, it was under the captaincy of Ricky Ponting (where he scored 164 runs off 105 balls) when Australia set the surreal record of 434 runs in the 50 overs game against South Africa.
It was completely surreal to witness such quality of cricket against the opposition like South Africa. But it shows that Ricky Ponting was the captain with a different approach to get the desired results he wanted from his team on any occasions. From the top order to middle order they have the players like Hayden, Gilchrist, Michael Clarke, Damien Martyn, Michael Hussey and including captain Ricky Ponting who could on his day destroy any side with their batting skills.
While the depth in the batting like Andrew Symonds and Michael Bevan makes the Australia team more dominating. In the bowling division they have players like Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Micheal Kasprowicz, Andy Bichel, Nathan Bracken, Shane Warne, Stuart McGill and Brad Hogg to make them the complete invincibles of his era from 2000-2009.
Here is that most invincible team ever in the history of cricket –
Mathew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Damien Martyn, Michael Hussey, Andrew Symonds, Michael Bevan, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Nathan Bracken, Andy Bichel, Brad Hogg, Michael Kasprowicz, Jason Gillespie and Stuart Macgill.
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