'MS Dhoni had more politics to deal with': Ricky Ponting's former AUS teammate puts IND great ahead of him as captain

MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting are two of the most succesfull captains of all time for their respective teams.

Ricky Ponting and MS Dhoni were two of the most successful captains in the first decade of the 21st century, although their periods as skippers of their respectful teams may not have overlapped so much. While Dhoni was effectively captain of the Indian team in all formats in 2008 and completely relinquished that position in 2017 while Ponting was Australia's captain from 2004 to 2011.

Ponting and Dhoni are two of the most succesfull captains of all time (AP)

Ponting proved himself to be a worthy successor to Steve Waugh in leading the all-conquering Australian team in the 2000s. Ponting led the team to two more World Cup titles in addition to winning one under Waugh in 1998. Australia were also one of the most difficult Test teams to face under his leadership. Apart from himself becoming one of the greatest batters of all time, Ponting also had the likes of Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden and Michael Clarke in his squad.

Former Australia spinner Brad Hogg, who played for a number of years under Ponting, said that while it is difficult to separate the two as captains, he would put Dhoni slightly above the Australian batting great because of the nature of the teams that the two inherited.

“Ricky Ponting had a wonderful team. MS Dhoni had a great team as well. For me, both did exceptionally well, both have got a fantastic record. You cannot separate them. I’d say that MS Dhoni probably had more politics to deal with in Indian cricket than what Ricky Ponting did. That probably puts Dhoni slightly in front of Ricky Ponting," said Hogg on his Youtube channel.

“The other thing with Ricky Ponting is he had a lot of cricketers around that were really experienced and knew their roles and knew what to do as well. He only had to control certain aspects of the game. Most of the attitudes of the players, the discipline of the players, the plans of the players knowing what to do, they all knew it.

“It’s a tough one, but MS Dhoni with the extra politics that he might have had in India, probably just puts him in front. Sorry, Ricky!”

Unlike Ponting, Dhoni did not inherit a well-oiled machine in any of the formats. While the likes of Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar were all playing when he took over as captain in all formats, they were all in the twilight of their careers and Dhoni handled the transition so well that India ended up winning trophies in this period. The likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin all flourished under him.

He is the only captain to have won all three ICC trophies, having won the 2007 T20 World Cup in what was his first assignment as captain, the 2011 World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. While India became the world No.1 Test team for the first time under him, Dhoni was not as succesfull a captain in the longest format, eventually retiring from Tests itself in 2014.