Don Bradman
Ricky Ponting
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Ricky Ponting leads 2 of 2 categories. Our all-time ranking places Don Bradman at #1 and Ricky Ponting at #9.
Head-to-head FAQ
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The case for Don Bradman
Donald Bradman's career Test average of 99.94 is the most celebrated number in cricket, and arguably in all of sport. In 52 Tests he scored 6,996 runs with 29 centuries, twelve of them double hundreds, and once made 334 against England at Leeds. He needed only four runs in his final innings, at The Oval in 1948, to average 100, but was bowled for a duck by Eric Hollies, a full stop of almost mythic cruelty. Bradman scored his runs on uncovered pitches, against Bodyline devised specifically to stop him, and averaged nearly double the next-best batsman of any era. He also captained Australia's unbeaten 1948 Invincibles. No batsman since has come close to his standard; the gap between Bradman and the field is the widest in the sport's statistical history, which is why he sits first on almost every credible list.
The case for Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting was the driving force of the most dominant team of the modern era and one of Test cricket's heaviest scorers. He amassed 13,378 Test runs with 41 centuries and 13,704 ODI runs, second only to Tendulkar in both. A brilliant puller and cutter with fast hands, he anchored Australia's batting for over a decade. As captain he won 48 of his 77 Tests and lifted two of his three World Cup titles, in 2003 and 2007, leading a side that went undefeated across those tournaments. His unbeaten 140 in the 2003 World Cup final against India was a masterclass in one-day batting. Ponting's fierce competitiveness and outstanding fielding at silly point and in the covers made him the embodiment of Australian cricket's golden generation, and his combined run tally across formats ranks among the very highest ever.