Sydney: Australia captain Ricky Ponting celebrates his 100th Test appearance in the third and final Test against South Africa starting at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday.

Ponting will join an elite band of just nine Australians to reach the milestone, a decade after he burst on to the world stage in 1995, and scored 96 on debut against Sri Lanka.

“It’s a great milestone for anybody to play 100 Test matches,” Ponting told a news conference on Sunday.

“It’s an absolute pleasure to play one but to be around long enough to play 100 is something that anybody can be very proud of.”

At 31, Ponting is showing no signs of ever slowing down and is arguably in the best form of his career.

The Tasmanian was the world’s leading run scorer in 2005 and starts 2006 officially ranked as the world’s best batsman.

“Ten years of International cricket has passed by me pretty quickly,” he said.

“I still feel pretty much the same now as when I first started so that’s obviously a good sign for me. The enjoyment’s still there as much as it’s ever been and my body feels great.”

Ponting was earmarked for greatness at a very young age. An aggressive righthander who can play every shot in the book and has the perfect temperament, he made his Test debut just before his 21st birthday.

A dubious umpiring decision cost him a century on debut, but he has made up for that disappointment by scoring a mountain of runs ever since.

Heading into his 100th Test, Ponting has 7,990 runs at an average of 56.27 with 26 centuries. “Looking back, it certainly would have been nice to score a hundred on debut but that wasn’t to be,” he said.