Who is the player you'd consider the most influential player in the Australian Men's Test cricket team from 2000 to 2009?

Adam Gilchrist - changed the game as a wicket keeper batter

I can't go past Shane Warne. His incredible skill and the theatre he created. The King

At his peak Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting. Led a champion team for some time and scored a mountain of runs. Allowed other great players of that era to dominate off the back of his performances

Tough call. Its easy to confuse best performed with most influence. Line ball call between Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. Both shaped the style of cricket their teams played through uncompromising attitudes, focused on winning. I lean to Waugh, because of the traditions he encouraged, because he changed the attitude of Australian teams to touring on the sub-continent and was ruthless. Ponting carried that work forward but Waugh was the originator. Waugh also changed the expectation of tailenders and their contribution with the bat, investing them with confidence and changing their application to practicing their batting. Both led by example with the bat and in the field. Ponting's failure to maintain his leadership in England in 2005, in the face of Shane Warne's interference, is in contrast to Waugh's courage in dropping Warne in the West Indies. Finally, Waugh was never flustered or angry or lost control over his emotions, where Ponting too often lost control and boiled over into anger. Steve Waugh's influence over the style of cricket Australia played lasted well beyond his own captaincy and was still reverberating right through Steve Smith's time at the helm.