Ponting gets nostalgic sharing photo of longest used bat

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting on Tuesday shared pictures of his favourite cricket bat that he used most in his illustrious career.

"Five international hundreds with this baby, four of them against South Africa. The 120 and 143* were made in my 100th Test at the SCG.

"And the 164 was made in the famous 434 v 438 ODI at the Wanderers. Used it for as long as I could and as you can see it's pretty worn out," Ponting said in a tweet.

Rated as one of the best batters of all time, Ponting played 168 Tests, 375 ODIs and 17 T20Is for Australia scoring 27,483 runs across formats.

Ponting, who is currently the head coach of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Capitals, also led Australia to two World Cup victories in 2003 and 2007.

The 45-year old recently said it will be difficult for batsman Usman Khawaja to make a return into the national team after being omitted from Cricket Australia's central contract list for 2020-21.

Ponting feels Khawaja's inconsistency is a big problem and so far in his career, the southpaw has only shown glimpses of the brilliance which he is capable of.

"I honestly think now he's going to find it difficult (to get back into the Australian team) and I feel for him," Ponting told ABC Grandstand as per ESPNCricinfo.

"I love Usman Khawaja, I got really close to him over the last 10 years since he made his debut and I talk to him quite regularly.

"I've always felt he's a very good player and we probably never saw the absolute best of him at international cricket. We saw glimpses of it, and dribs and drabs, but not the consistently good player I thought he could have been for Australia."