Quote:
Originally Posted by Top_Cat
Easy. For WA:
95/96 41.08
96/97 46.4
97/98 43.4
98/99 41.2
99/00 51
00/01 30.25
01/02 34.5
02/03 38.2
03/04 41.77
04/05 55.46
In an era where you had multiple guys lining up multiple 1000+ seasons and averaging 55+, those numbers were never going to get him in the team ahead of Langer/Taylor/Blewett/Elliott/Slater (without checking, don't think he got past 1000 once in that time). When he'd go and bash around attacks in England and average 60+ but then only score against weak attacks here, made him look like a bully rather than a gun.
Less about statistics but he had very few shots for a long time too. Got bogged down a lot because he'd be looking for balls to smash for 4 in the 3rd man/cover arc so, well, bowlers just didn't give him width. When he was in the midst of the really low patch above, WA threw him down the order in OD's where he simply had to play more shots and be more risky in general. Transformed his game.
tl; dr, he didn't deserve to get picked before '05.
|
Well and truly transformed himself now though. I would say Hussey is the most versatile batsman in Australia, where he can change his game dramitically to fit any situation. He also works incredibly hard on his game, good on him.