256 balls, 148 runs: R Ashwin explains why he could never dismiss Ricky Ponting in Tests

A look at stats shows that Ricky Ponting has faced most balls from R Ashwin, among all batsmen, without being dismissed in Tests.

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting is an absolute legend of the game. In his career, the right-handed batsman went on to lead Australia to back-to-back World Cup title wins. He also recorded over 13,000 runs in both Tests and ODIs. Ponting scored a total of 71 international hundreds. When India travelled to Australia for four-match Test series in December 2011, Ravichandran Ashwin was the new rising off-spinner for the team. Ponting, who was approaching the end of his career, played the off-spinner beautifully throughout the series, and never lost his wicket against Ashwin.

File image of R Ashwin and Ricky Ponting. (AFP/AP/HT Collage)

Ponting played 256 deliveries from Ashwin in the series, and scored 148 runs against him. Unfortunately for cricketing fans across the globe who enjoyed seeing this competition, this was the only time when the two players squared off against each other in Test cricket.

A look at stats shows that Ponting has faced most balls from Ashwin in Tests, among all batsmen, without being dismissed. So, does that mean Ponting was Ashwin’s toughest opponent? Pakistan journalist Mazher Arshad asked this question from Ashwin in an interview uploaded on his Youtube channel.

In his response, Ashwin said: “I think the sample size is very less. I think I might have played very little against Ricky Ponting. In the Adelaide Test, he was dropped twice, I remember it very clearly. In the Sydney Test, he made some runs, I bowled very less against him in Melbourne. But in Adelaide and Sydney, I bowled longer to him.”

“Ricky Ponting is a great batsman, I was a newcomer at the time. I really take pride when someone plays me really well, I try to counter them as period goes on. That’s international cricket. You adapt. When you do well, you learn, when you don’t do well, you learn harder,” Ashwin added.

“For me, I always thought Ricky Ponting was a fine, fine batsman. I also thought he wanted to go out on a high, he didn’t have any pressure at that point of time when we went to Australia. I was still new into my art, I was still learning my game,” he further said.

“I don’t see anyone as someone who is the best batsman in the world, or very difficult to bowl at. Yes, you will have good days and bad days. If someone plays you well, you have to learn and get better,” Ashwin signed off.