Cricinfo's Player of the Decade title is "a great honour and a great thrill" for Australia's captain

On the day when he was voted the world's best cricketer of the past ten years, Ricky Ponting showed his use-by date didn't arrive with the end of the decade

Australia's series against Pakistan is not yet finished but Ricky Ponting's men are already looking ahead to next summer's Ashes

The last Test of Australia's home summer is a dead rubber but for several members of Ricky Ponting's side, it's anything but

Mitchell Marsh has burst onto the domestic scene in Australia this summer, but over the next couple of weeks he'll be hoping to impress an international audience as Australia's captain at the Under-19 World Cup

Peter Siddle is confident the mental scars inflicted on Pakistan after their shattering loss in Sydney will give Australia a distinct advantage for the final Test in Hobart

Having picked up his first five-wicket haul for Australia, Nathan Hauritz has declared his intentions to make the spinner's spot his own for a long time to come.

Mitchell Johnson has done some wonderful things this year but his captain Ricky Ponting insists he has never bowled better than during this week's win over Pakistan in Melbourne

Ricky Ponting has predicted Nathan Hauritz's five-wicket haul at the MCG will be a career-turning moment for a spinner who was, only last week, challenged to stand up as a fourth-innings match-winner

Australia have named an unchanged 12-man squad for the second Test, resisting the urge to add Steven Smith as a second spinner following Pakistan's struggles against Nathan Hauritz in Melbourne

On a day when he broke the records for the most wins by any Test player and the most victories for an Australian captain, Ponting called the 170-run triumph over Pakistan the best in a long while

Shane Watson is lucky Pakistan are one of the worst fielding teams in world cricket as his first Test century was in the hands of Abdur Rauf, but only briefly

Shane Watson has fought many struggles and his maiden century at the MCG will bring him enormous relief

Shane Watson went to bed on 64 and will be desperate to ensure that this innings is ultimately recorded as his first Test century, not his eighth Test half-century

Mitchell Johnson and Doug Bollinger are starting to form a particularly useful bowling combination

Nathan Hauritz won many admirers for his batting on the second day at the MCG

Ricky Ponting is starting to recognise the limitations of his team and realises that pushing on too long can result in a nasty hangover

Shane Watson has conceded that Australia's failure to find a Test centurion this summer has started to creep into the minds of the players

Shane Watson and Simon Katich managed to perform their own accidental comic routine on cricket's biggest stage on Boxing Day

Cricinfo previews the first Test between Australia and Pakistan at the MCG