“If He Loses, He Will Go”: When Michael Vaughan Predicted Ashes 2010/11 to Be Ricky Ponting’s Last Series as Captain

Former English captain Michael Vaughan had predicted Ashes 2010/11 to be legendary Australian captain Ricky Ponting‘s last series as captain especially if he failed to win the urn back. Notwithstanding Ponting’s achievements as a leader in international cricket, one can’t ignore the fact that his Ashes record as a captain was pretty dejecting to say the least.

Played in Australia, this was Ponting’s fourth Ashes as a skipper and he had already lost two of them. Vaughan’s comments came after Australia lost an ODI against Sri Lanka before the commencement of the Ashes series. It was their sixth successive defeat in international cricket and Vaughan felt each such setback would benefit England.

Going into the series, Australia were the clear favourites as England had last won the Ashes down under in 1986-87. On a personal front, Ponting was in all sorts of pressure due to his past record. The pressure showed in the way the whole team played throughout the series as they were nowhere near their best in another losing effort.

Michael Vaughan Predicted Ashes 2010/11 to Be Ricky Ponting’s Last Series as Captain

In an interview with ESPNCricinfo, Vaughan had said that the Australian side in that series was very weak as compared to previous editions. While their erstwhile bowling attack used to consist names such as Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, etc., it was no longer the case in 2010.

Even though most of the Ashes in Australia have been quite one-sided, but Vaughan was still confident about England. The Australian bowling flopped completely in that series as predicted by the former English captain.

“If he [Ricky Ponting] loses the series he will go.

“He has lost the Ashes twice and hasn’t won an Ashes in England either. Obviously, he won the 2006-07 Ashes 5-0 but he had a better team to manage those days.”

England eventually won the series 3-1 under the captaincy of Andrew Strauss. The home side faced innings defeats on all the three occasions. English opener Alastair Cook was the highest run-scorer in the series with 766 runs and pacer James Anderson was the highest wicket-taker with 24 wickets.

Was Ashes 2010/11 Ricky Ponting’s Last Series As Captain?

It was indeed Ponting’s last series as an Australian Test captain. He missed the last match of the series because of an injury. Ponting stepped down as captain from all the three formats of the game after Australia’s exit from ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

After Ponting, his long-time deputy Michael Clarke was named the new Australian captain. Ponting continued to play under Clarke before retiring from the highest level in 2012. That said, Ponting did lead Australia in Clarke’s absence in a couple of ODIs during Commonwealth Bank Series 2011/12.