2005 Ashes was one of all time great cricket series: Ricky Ponting

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting recalled the 2005 Ashes series and went on to say that the contest between England and Australia back then can very well be termed as one of the greatest cricket series of all time.

Ponting was challenged by Australia batsman David Warner to talk about some of his greatest Ashes memories and it was then that Ponting decided to talk about the 2005 Ashes series.

England had won the Ashes after a long time in 2005 after the hosts defeated Australia 2-1 in the five-match series.

Australia had won the opening Test at Lord's, but then the side went on to lose the second and fourth Test match.

 

Ponting uploaded a video on Instagram to talk about some of his greatest Ashes memories.

"It was my childhood dream to play some Ashes cricket. I have played in eight or nine Ashes series so there are some fond memories and then there are some which are not that fond memories," Ponting said in the video.

"One such not so fond memory includes the 2005 Ashes series, where we were beaten by Michael Vaughan's England. It was probably one of the all-time great series, Vaughan's team was too good. We won the first Test at Lord's, but then came the Edgbaston Test, it was one of the all-time great Tests and we came up short, then in the third Test we had to battle it out for a draw," he added.

After the second Test match, which England managed to win by two runs, Andrew Flintoff did not go off to celebrate, rather he shook the hands of Brett Lee first.

Ponting referred to this incident and said these type of things remain etched in one's memory.

"The fourth Test we ended up losing and England snuck up the line, and the fifth ended in a draw, and we ended up losing the Ashes. Unfortunately, we were not good enough. The everlasting image to come out of that series was that of Brett Lee and Andrew Flintoff down on one knee celebrating the end of a great Test match," Ponting said.

"After winning the match, Flintoff's first gesture was to go up to Brett, they are the things I remember about Ashes cricket the most, we enjoyed playing hard on the pitch and so did Vaughan's team in the 2005 series," he added.

Ponting scored 27,486 runs for Australia in his international career and also led his country in all three formats.

No Australian has scored more international centuries than the former skipper. Ponting also led Australia to two World Cup victories in 2003 and 2007. He played his last Test in 2012.

He is the second-highest run-getter in the history of the longest format of the game after finishing his career with 13,378 runs in Test cricket.