Early life of Ricky Ponting 17-year-old batsman Academy coach Rod Marsh had ever seen. Playing five games for Tasmania in the 1992 Under–19 tournament in Perth, Ponting scored 350 runs, earning him selection in the 13-man national Under–19 development squad for the upcoming tour of South Africa—the first Australian cricket team to make an official tour to the country since Bill Lawry's team in 1970; South Africa were banned from international sport soon after because of their government's policy of apartheid, and were not readmitted until the 1990s. Under the captaincy of Adam Gilchrist, the Australians played four one-day and four three-day games, winning five
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