Brisbane, Feb 20: Ricky Ponting's limited-overs career could be over after selectors dropped the dual World Cup-winning captain from Australia's squad for this week's tri-series matches against India and Sri Lanka.
The 37-year-old Ponting scored 18 runs at an average of 3.6 in five innings in the series the worst sequence in his 375-game ODI career.
But selectors took the decision out of his hands on Monday, only hours after Ponting declared he wouldn't offer to take a rest because he wanted to play his way back into form.
Ponting quit as captain after Australia's World Cup quarterfinal loss to India but returned to the job briefly last week because his successor, Michael Clarke, was injured.
But with Clarke and vice-captain Shane Watson coming back into the squad for this week's matches, selectors couldn't find room in the 13-man squad for Ponting.
“Ricky Ponting has been dropped from the squad due to his lack of form in the five (tri-series) matches to date,” chief selector John Inverarity said.
“The team will not seem the same without him, but moving on from the omission of players, who have been outstanding over a long period of time, is the nature of elite sport.”
