Mr. Cricket

It was a surprise to followers of county cricket, and particularly to fans of Northants and Durham, when Mike Hussey was included in Australia’s one day squad in 2005 but not their test squad, for he had been a prolific run scorer in the County Championship. However, his success to that point had been as an opener and he had no realistic chance of ousting Langer and Hayden. At the time, though, there were many who felt that he would have been a more valuable member of the side than Simon Katich and some went so far as to say that the Ashes wouldn’t have been lost with Hussey in the side.

He duly made his debut as a reserve opener that November and made an undistinguished start, contributing just 29 and 1. Not for the first time he was only a failure away from losing his place in the side, since the injured Justin Langer would be returning soon. Hussey duly delivered, making 137 in the first innings to cement his place in the side.
From there he went on a phenomenal run. After twenty-one tests he was averaging an astonishing 80.22, his average having been as high as 86.18. He had made eight hundreds and, although his average was boosted by an unusually large number of not outs, he was being touted in some quarters as the new Bradman, although Bradman was averaging 106.37 after twenty-one tests. An already overpoweringly strong Australian side seemed to have added a freak of nature to the side.

It didn’t last. Although Hussey has been a fixture in the Australian side ever since, the thirty-six test that he has played since have brought 2,431 runs at 40.52. The recent run of poor scores that put his place in jeopardy were, in fact, nothing new. Indeed, prior to the Ashes series he was averaging a respectable 45.78, but that had been inflated by two unbeaten scores against Pakistan – without them his average dropped to twenty-one. Put bluntly, Mr. Cricket was no longer worth his place in the side.

The margins in test cricket are incredibly fine, though. Had Graeme Swann been standing a couple of feet closer when Hussey faced his first ball at Brisbane then he would have been walking back with another nought to his name and with his test career all but over, but instead he went on to play a truly remarkable innings before being dismissed just short of what would have been a well deserved double century. Since then he has been in astonishing form, achieving something that was beyond even the Don with six half centuries in consecutive Ashes innings. One wonders where Australia would be in this series without him.

So, where does he stand in the pantheon of great batsmen? There’s no doubt that his career figures are inflated by a freakish run early in his career, but he’s by no means unique in that. For the aesthete he is no David Gower or Greg Chappell, but neither is he Gary Kirsten or Alastair Cook. His pull shot is a thing of majesty and he drives beautifully through the covers. One area that does let him down, however, is his record outside Australia: at home he averages 67.39, but away from home that drops to an altogether more mortal 39.75 with only three of his thirteen test hundreds coming on foreign soil. This can partly be attributed to his upbringing in Western Australia: Justin Langer was praising his ability to leave the ball on length, but outside Australia this becomes altogether more problematic. Three of his nine dismissals in the 2009 Ashes came leaving the ball, an extraordinarily high number for a top class batsman.

So, is he an all time great? The answer is no, but in Australian conditions, especially when his side are up against it, he’s a top class performer. They shall miss him when he’s gone.