Ricky Ponting says Australian captain Steve Smith will finish his career a better player than him

RICKY Ponting has paid Steve Smith the ultimate compliment by tipping he looks set to become better than he was.

RICKY Ponting has paid Steve Smith the ultimate compliment by tipping he looks set to become better than he was.

Widely considered Australia’s greatest batsman since Sir Donald Bradman, Ponting has declared Smith possesses the skill, and more importantly, the insatiable, unrelenting hunger for world domination to better his extraordinary record of 41 Test centuries and more than 13,000 career runs.

Smith’s hundred on a rank-turner in the first Test in Pune was the most significant of his career, and according to experts such as Darren Lehmann, Michael Clarke and Shane Warne, his best.

Teammates have confided that they’ve never seen their notably focused leader as single-minded and dogged as he was in this last match.

Australian captain Steve Smith celebrates his century against India in the first Test in Pune.

If the Australian skipper can manage 112 runs in Bangalore starting on Saturday, he will officially rank behind Bradman as the second fastest batsman to ever pass the 5000 run milestone for matches played.

Ponting believes Smith is firmly on track to ultimately retire as Australia’s greatest modern-day batsman.

“If Smithy keeps maintaining what he’s doing now for another 100 Tests then he probably will end up being a better player than me,” he said.

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“He’s not doing much wrong at the moment, is he?

“I know he’s got great passion and got great drive to be the best player he can be and probably the best player the world has ever seen, which is a great attitude to have.

“I wanted to be the best player in the world as well and I wanted to be able to sustain it for a long period of time.

“And that’s what really separates the great players, how long you can actually sustain a high level of excellence for.

“You look at Tendulkar, he played 200 Test matches and averaged 53. Kallis played 160 and averaged 55. When you can sustain it for that period of time that’s what separates the very, very best from the others.”

Former Test captain Ricky Ponting in action against India.

Smith’s special ton leading from the front in Pune has taken him to 4888 runs, 18 Test hundreds, with an average of 60.34 from just 51 matches.

Away from home he averages 58, with eight centuries, putting him an elite class of modern-day player who remains potent wherever he goes.

The burden of captaincy has weighed down many a great batsman, but for Smith the extra responsibility has only spurred him on, with an eye-watering average of 73.37 from his matches in charge.

Ponting says India is the toughest place in the world to not only play, but to captain.

Big runs from Smith on this tour will have a flow on effect to helping the captain make choice decisions in the field.

From last year’s disastrous tour of Sri Lanka, Ponting says Smith has learned that the ‘Australian way’ doesn’t work in India.

“I used to do it when I was playing … you get carried away with trying to play an Australian style or an Australian brand of cricket in conditions where you can’t necessarily do that,” Ponting told The Daily Telegraph pre tour.

“It really is a patience game over there.

“You look back to the way our guys batted in Sri Lanka, you could see, it was almost like they were all on fast forward and just being a bit reckless and not trusting the defensive side of their game.

“You just need your players to stand up and execute well under extreme pressure.

“If Smithy plays well that’ll make his captaincy job so much easier in those conditions.

“it can sometimes be a frustrating place to play and a tough place to captain.”