After crossing the 12,000 run mark in ODIs during the Champions Trophy, Ricky Ponting said that he is “chasing benchmarks set by Sachin “. Among the contemporaries of Tendulkar, only Ponting and Jack Kallis have any chance of overtaking his records-most runs or centuries in the career- in Test matches. In ODIs, it looks very unlikely that anyone will cross Sachin’s records(runs or centuries) within the next 10 years.

So, between Tendulkar and Ponting, who is likely to end his career with the most number of runs or centuries in Test cricket? It is quite difficult to say. Sachin has already completed playing for 20 years and unless there is a major injury, he will continue for another 2 years, till the world cup in 2011. He is probably one of the very few international cricketers who has the luxury to chose when to retire. In case of Ponting, he started playing 6 years later than Sachin but has caught up and is quite close to Sachin’s career records. He is only about 1400 runs and 4 centuries behind Sachin in Test matches. And he is 1 year younger than Sachin, which means that he might play for another year after Sachin retires.

All in all, I think Ricky Ponting has an excellent chance of  ending his career as the highest run scorer and centurion in Test cricket. What do you think?

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Image credit : Nellistic