Mike Hussey to retire at end of summer.

[Top_Cat]

For the record, feel free to check, but I was in the crowd saying Hussey should be dropped in '09, possibly before the Oval Test. That said, what became apparent fairly quickly was that there was noone to replace him because there was no-one putting serious pressure on his spot. The young blokes in line for his spot didn't look like Test players and the guys who were scoring in Shield cricket were 30+, hardly the foundations of a youthful rebuild of the team. Hussey dropping back to 6 meant he could at least play a role no-one else was up to and that he did. It's not his fault that 3 years on there are still blokes who don't look up to it and, even with the dearth of decent bats in the country, there should be some sense that a bloke has earnt his spot in the Test side.

You can't just pick young blokes under the pretense of 'investing' in them unless they have performances behind them or obviously have the game to survive playing Tests. Tests are a harsh place to develop your game.

[Spark]

Logic: Hussey's ton at the Gabba led to the bowlers conceding 1/517.

Solid stuff.

And clearly, runs scored after you've been dropped don't help the team at all. Because, y'know, that would just be inconvenient. And Galle was a road too.

[say2chintu]

Cricinfo picks Hussey's best five in Tests. Incidentally not one in overseas conditions. Shows what a home bully in TESTS he was much like Sehwag in tests

Hussey TEST avg < 32 in each of Eng, SA, NZ, WI. Away country to avg 35+: Ind,Bang,SL. Modern TEST great? NOPE !!

Modern great batsman (finisher) in ODIs for sure despite his awful record in ODI World Cups (avg of 19 !))

[Burgey]

Yeah, he's no Suresh Raina as a Test player, that's for sure.

[Spark]

Originally Posted by say2chintu

Cricinfo picks Hussey's best five in Tests. Incidentally not one in overseas conditions. Shows what a home bully in TESTS he was much like Sehwag in tests

Hussey TEST avg < 32 in each of Eng, SA, NZ, WI. Away country to avg 35+: Ind,Bang,SL. Modern TEST great? NOPE !!

Modern great batsman (finisher) in ODIs for sure despite his awful record in ODI World Cups (avg of 19 !))

Well I'm sure this startling revelation will be a shock to all those in this thread arguing that he's an all-time great.

[Top_Cat]

Always found Mike Hussey's away/home differential a weird thing. At 'home' for WA, averages 41 (same as his away Test average) but 'away' for Northants/Durham/cbf, averages 71 (3 unbeaten triples help that a lot but take them away and his average is still a sky-high 61, the same as his home Test average). Compare that to a very average record in England for the Test side but scored a couple of great tons against stiff oppo in Perth for Australia. Dunno if the away/home thing is as big a factor as being made out. Have heard one theory that, having smashed CC bowlers to all parts, that he choked under the pressure of repeating the dose against the same bowlers in Tests. Certainly, heaps of his dismissals in England for Australia looked like faulty decision-making.

Also never really did well opening for WA but managed big runs in the off-season which goes part of the way to explaining why he didn't get a look-in for Tests until he was around 30. Was only when he started batting further down in OD games for WA that he started to build some momentum and nabbed a Test spot. Was rated highly by Marsh when at the academy so his name always came up when Taylor/Slater/Hayden/etc. were having a lean trot but don't think he was ever that competitive with them, mainly because he middled for WA.

Weird career in some ways. Personally, think he suffered by being asked to be the straight man in the opening partnership for WA for so many years. The blokes at the other end tended to be dashers who were a bit hit-and-miss (Campbell/Lavender/etc.) so he had to reign it in and I don't think that was ever really his game. Contrary to his rep, don't think he was ever a 'gritty' player, only when he was finally asked to be that 'busy' player for WA did he really take off.

[benchmark00]

Originally Posted by Top_Cat

Always found Mike Hussey's away/home differential a weird thing. At 'home' for WA, averages 41 (same as his away Test average) but 'away' for Northants/Durham/cbf, averages 71 (3 unbeaten triples help that a lot but take them away and his average is still a sky-high 61, the same as his home Test average). Compare that to a very average record in England for the Test side but scored a couple of great tons against stiff oppo in Perth for Australia.

Also never really did well opening for WA but managed big runs in the off-season which goes part of the way to explaining why he didn't get a look-in for Tests until he was around 30. Was only when he started batting further down in OD games for WA that he started to build some momentum and nabbed a Test spot. Was rated highly by Marsh when at the academy so his name always came up when Taylor/Slater/Hayden/etc. were having a lean trot but don't think he was ever that competitive with them, mainly because he middled for WA.

Weird career in some ways. Personally, think he suffered by being asked to be the straight man in the opening partnership for WA for so many years. The blokes at the other end tended to be dashers who were a bit hit-and-miss (Campbell/Lavender/etc.) so he had to reign it in and I don't think that was ever really his game. Contrary to his rep, don't think he was ever a 'gritty' player, only when he was finally asked to be that 'busy' player for WA did he really take off.

Played against county attacks for northants and Durham tbf.

Very unconventional career.

I always waited for test cricket to catch up to him after his start, so I unfairly begrudged him when fan bois were comparing him to the don, and it did catch up with him in some respects, but still averaged over fiddy so he can tell everyone to suck a fat one I guess.

[uvelocity]

poster above never needs an invitation to suck a fat one ftr

[benchmark00]

Must be a deleted post because it has my post above yours. vitstl.

[uvelocity]

[Top_Cat]

Originally Posted by benchmark00

Played against county attacks for northants and Durham tbf.

Yeah, I'm sure playing in a weak (at the time) comp hurt him come selection time. Remember questions in the press around the time he'd scored two of those triples wondering why he could do it there but not here. Irony, of course, was that he was earmarked as a possible England specialist for the Test side.

From memory, was generally paired with a stoic type for Northants? Remember Rollins for a while but think he was the sturdy one when they batted together.

[Spark]

Hussey's away stats aren't really helped at all by his short career as someone mentioned. A lot of his tours - often his only tour - to some places coincided with his horrible slump where he completely off-stump, and that had nothing to do with home/away because he was just as out of it at home. I don't think he's ever been brilliant against swing bowling, which is a factor in his England/SA record, but reckon he'd have done alright if he went to England in this sort of nick.

[stephen]

TBF to Hussey, it should be noted that his record in South Africa was very good after his first series. It only went poor after his second series, which coincided with his form slump. His third series there was all of two tests and though he didn't do well, nor did anyone else other than Clarke.

His record in England had far more to do with a form slump than his actual ability to play in English conditions and I'm not sure it's fair to judge his ability to play in NZ on the basis of two tests.

His golden run of form happened to coincide with a period where Aus didn't really have many overseas tests and those that they did have, Hussey batted very well in. His form slump, which started in Perth 2008, managed to hurt his averages in the WI, NZ and SA. He batted well in India during this period though, so it's possible that the gun WI attack were far too good for him at home (sarcasm).

Really most of the sample sizes for the countries Hussey played in are too small to make any accurate analysis on.

[Howe_zat]

Originally Posted by Spark

Hussey's away stats aren't really helped at all by his short career as someone mentioned. A lot of his tours - often his only tour - to some places coincided with his horrible slump where he completely off-stump, and that had nothing to do with home/away because he was just as out of it at home. I don't think he's ever been brilliant against swing bowling, which is a factor in his England/SA record, but reckon he'd have done alright if he went to England in this sort of nick.

There was definately a lot more away Tests in the rubbishy middle third of his career, but it cuts both ways. Maybe if he wasn't so much weaker away from home, he wouldn't have had that run? Or it wouldn't have affected him so much?

Not sure I subscribe to the above, ftr. It's certainly the case that his poor batting in the 09 Ashes was mainly the result of poor judgement than real weakness against swing - not least because he was rarely dismissed by Anderson or Onions finding swing, prefferring to get out by leaving straight deliveries.

[Spark]

Originally Posted by Howe_zat

There was definately a lot more away Tests in the rubbishy middle third of his career, but it cuts both ways. Maybe if he wasn't so much weaker away from home, he wouldn't have had that run? Or it wouldn't have affected him so much?

Not sure I subscribe to the above, ftr. It's certainly the case that his poor batting in the 09 Ashes was mainly the result of poor judgement than real weakness against swing - not least because he was rarely dismissed by Anderson or Onions finding swing, prefferring to get out by leaving straight deliveries.

Well his slump was really him not knowing where his off-stump was, and he looked just as bad in the 08/9 home series as anywhere else, so I do think that it wasn't much to do with away conditions. Maybe it wouldn't have affected him as much, but it was a proper slump.