Early life of Ricky Ponting limited overs matches against a touring Indian team. Queenslander Stuart Law captained the Australian side that included former Australian keeper Rod Marsh. In Australia's victory in the first match in Canberra, Ponting top-scored with 71, before making 52 in a victory in Sydney. The last match was also successful for the home team, with Ponting not required to bat. Ponting started his 1994–95 campaign with a century against eventual Shield champions Queensland in Brisbane, in a performance that impressed Queensland captain Allan Border, who had just retired from international cricket after leading the national team for a decade. Border said
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