Ponting nudges Warne for me. Warne had a decent series with the ball but not his best (averaging 30ish), and although he did tremendously well with the bat and sentimentality tugs at me, I have to say that Ponting has never had a better Ashes series with the bat (IMO, without recourse to statistics and based mainly on just watching him bat) and I've never seen him play so well. He's still lacking as a captain, but with the quality he has with the bat and in the field, the players he had and the performances they put in he didn't need to be the best of leaders. Bouncing back from 2005 to spearhead an Ashes reclaimation is highly admirable indeed.