Ricky Ponting According to former Australian captain Allan Border, what you see with Ponting is what you get, and "he wears his heart on his sleeve". Border also noted that Ponting has an abundance of determination, courage and skill. However, his competitive attitudes could be overly aggressive, pushing the boundaries of cricket etiquette. In early 2006, in the Chappell–Hadlee Trophy, Ponting had an on-field argument with umpire Billy Bowden over signalling a no-ball because not enough players were within the inner circle. In mid-2006, during a tour of Bangladesh, Ponting was accused of "badgering the umpires until he got what he wanted".
Ricky Ponting with the Australian cricket team in India in 2008–09 earlier in the year. He had also struggled in a previous three Test series during 2001, scoring 17 runs at 3.40. Ponting acknowledged prior to the series that he was keen to rectify his poor Test batting record in India, believed to be because of his weakness against spin bowling. Though, from 1 January 2004 up until the start of the first Test, Ponting scored 1510 runs and an average of 83.88 in 64 innings against spin bowling, thus being the only Australian to score more than 1,300 runs and average over 70. Australia headed into the First Test at