Michael Hussey – Is his time up?

[SJS]

Hussey has also suffered from the decline in the standards of the Australian batting line up.
He came into a batting lineup which had (besides him)

• Langer,
• Hayden,
• Ponting,
• Martyn
• Clarke,
• Katich,
• Symonds and
• Gilchrist.

It was a fantastic batting lineup and Hussey's runs were not that vital to the side. So there was no pressure on him. In fact, Australia were looking to him to eventually replace Langer at the opening slot and used him there for the first six innings.

By the time Langer retired at the end of the 2006-07 Ashes series at home, Hussey had played 60 Tests averaging a fraction under eighty. It looked great but it was a fabulous line up (besides great attack which rarely allowed great pressure to build up). Damien Martyn had retired earlier in the series.

During this first period, Ponting averaged 81, Hodge, Hayden and Clarke in the fifties and Langer a fraction under 40. Jaques, Gilchrist, Martyn and Symonds averaged in the thirties. The important thing is the wealth of batting at Australia's disposal

The team continued without Martyn and Langer and it was still a fabulous line up

The next loss came with Gilchrist retiring at the end of 2007-08 series against India at home. For the next series in West Indies even Hayden was not available and the Austrlian side did not look all that mighty any more.

The side (besides Hussey) now read

• Jaques
• Katich
• Ponting
• Hodge
• Symonds and
• Haddin

It is from here that both Australia's and more strikingly, Hussey's performance seemed to decline.

In 17 Tests since the start of that West Indies series, Hussey has scored

• 934 runs at
• 31.1 per innings with just
• 1 century.

Clearly Hussey's decline seems to coincide with the drop in the quality of batting around him and thereby the increased responsibility.

I tried to look at this another way. Out of 67 Test innings so far, Hussey has played the majority (58 at numbers four and five) with another one at six. The rest have been as opnere mostly at the very start of his career.

Clearly with the kind of batting Australia possessed at the top of the order, number four and five would mostly be expected to come in with a healthy score board. I decided to check how Hussey has fared vis-a-vis runs on the scoreboard as he went in to bat. It makes very interesting reading.

[B]Runs on Board	Innings	Runs	Average	Centuries[/B]
				
[COLOR="DarkRed"]0 to 50 	17	453	28.3	0[/COLOR]

51 to 100	16	720	55.4	1

[COLOR="DarkGreen"]101 Plus	26	1562	71	7[/COLOR]
				
[B]Overall at 4-6	59	2735	341.9	8[/B]

Do these figures tell us something about his temperament. It would appear so.

 

[Pigeon]

Hussey has also suffered from the decline in the standards of the Australian batting line up.
He came into a batting lineup which had (besides him)

• Langer,
• Hayden,
• Ponting,
• Martyn
• Clarke,
• Katich,
• Symonds and
• Gilchrist.

It was a fantastic batting lineup and Hussey's runs were not that vital to the side. So there was no pressure on him. In fact, Australia were looking to him to eventually replace Langer at the opening slot and used him there for the first six innings.

By the time Langer retired at the end of the 2006-07 Ashes series at home, Hussey had played 60 Tests averaging a fraction under eighty. It looked great but it was a fabulous line up (besides great attack which rarely allowed great pressure to build up). Damien Martyn had retired earlier in the series.

During this first period, Ponting averaged 81, Hodge, Hayden and Clarke in the fifties and Langer a fraction under 40. Jaques, Gilchrist, Martyn and Symonds averaged in the thirties. The important thing is the wealth of batting at Australia's disposal

The team continued without Martyn and Langer and it was still a fabulous line up

The next loss came with Gilchrist retiring at the end of 2007-08 series against India at home. For the next series in West Indies even Hayden was not available and the Austrlian side did not look all that mighty any more.

The side (besides Hussey) now read

• Jaques
• Katich
• Ponting
• Hodge
• Symonds and
• Haddin

It is from here that both Australia's and more strikingly, Hussey's performance seemed to decline.

In 17 Tests since the start of that West Indies series, Hussey has scored

• 934 runs at
• 31.1 per innings with just
• 1 century.

Clearly Hussey's decline seems to coincide with the drop in the quality of batting around him and thereby the increased responsibility.

I tried to look at this another way. Out of 67 Test innings so far, Hussey has played the majority (58 at numbers four and five) with another one at six. The rest have been as opnere mostly at the very start of his career.

Clearly with the kind of batting Australia possessed at the top of the order, number four and five would mostly be expected to come in with a healthy score board. I decided to check how Hussey has fared vis-a-vis runs on the scoreboard as he went in to bat. It makes very interesting reading.

[B]Runs on Board	Innings	Runs	Average	Centuries[/B]
				
[COLOR="DarkRed"]0 to 50 	17	453	28.3	0[/COLOR]

51 to 100	16	720	55.4	1

[COLOR="DarkGreen"]101 Plus	26	1562	71	7[/COLOR]
				
[B]Overall at 4-6	59	2735	341.9	8[/B]

Do these figures tell us something about his temperament. It would appear so.

Also note the disparity between his home and away averages. He prospered the most in the initial period of his career as he played almost entirely at home, where he had perfected the trade for umpteen years prior to that in the tough FC conditions. Once Australia started touring, his averages also took the hit.

Same the case with Clarke also. Home bullies, both are, though not that it discounts much of their performances.

 

[SJS]

It really puts all this talk about average in matches won non-sense in perspective. Matches are won by stronger teams and if you bat for the strongest team in the world your tend to benefit from it. Actually its batting in weaker sides that should be lauded as for Lara in a very weak Windies side for example. Of course such a side will lose more matches but that does not detract from Lara's performances, rather enhances it.

I have always been a great fan of Andy Flower for that reason. Its remarkable to score runs like that in a weak side. If they lose its not because of you but inspite of you.

 

[honestbharani]

It really puts all this talk about average in matches won non-sense in perspective. Matches are won by stronger teams and if you bat for the strongest team in the world your tend to benefit from it. Actually its batting in weaker sides that should be lauded as for Lara in a very weak Windies side for example. Of course such a side will lose more matches but that does not detract from Lara's performances, rather enhances it.

I have always been a great fan of Andy Flower for that reason. Its remarkable to score runs like that in a weak side. If they lose its not because of you but inspite of you.

wow, SJS.. I see now why they gave you the Bradman category in the CC poster battle thread.




Amazing work again, sir... Only you can better yourself.

 

[Uppercut]

Nice to see some recognition, my second article posted on CricBuzz.

Michael Hussey: is his time up

Good stuff mate .

 

[Jakester1288]

Good stuff mate .

Cheers.

 

[NUFAN]

Awesome work Jakester

 

[tooextracool]

Hussey has also suffered from the decline in the standards of the Australian batting line up.
He came into a batting lineup which had (besides him)

• Langer,
• Hayden,
• Ponting,
• Martyn
• Clarke,
• Katich,
• Symonds and
• Gilchrist.

It was a fantastic batting lineup and Hussey's runs were not that vital to the side. So there was no pressure on him. In fact, Australia were looking to him to eventually replace Langer at the opening slot and used him there for the first six innings..

Disagree with this strongly. When Hussey first came into the side, Martyn had just been dropped (and never really recovered from it), Katich had also been dropped, Gilchrist had been worked out and was a shadow off his original self, Langer was injured for a part of it, and was mediocre whenever he did play, and Symonds took quite a while to find his feet. Honestly, Hussey's runs against SA in 2005-06 could not have come in a more high-octane environment. To say that his runs 'werent needed' would be like saying Clark's wickets in SA in 2006 werent needed.

By the time Langer retired at the end of the 2006-07 Ashes series at home, Hussey had played 60 Tests averaging a fraction under eighty. It looked great but it was a fabulous line up (besides great attack which rarely allowed great pressure to build up). Damien Martyn had retired earlier in the series.

60 tests? seems like a fairly big typo there.

Anyhow, it seems like no matter what would happen with Hussey, people were bound to criticise him when he had his inevitable string of failures. First people questioned whether he could play spin, before he scored runs against Kumble and Harbhajan both home and away. And now that hes had a few poor series, theres more people questioning his ability.

 

[Jakester1288]

60 tests? seems like a fairly big typo there.

Yep. According to Cricinfo, he has only played 39 tests in his career to date.

Maybe he meant 16? Because he only had played 11 before his first Ashes series, and 16 by the conclusion.

 

[SJS]

Yep. According to Cricinfo, he has only played 39 tests in his career to date.

Maybe he meant 16? Because he only had played 11 before his first Ashes series, and 16 by the conclusion.

Thats right. I did mean 16. Obviously a typo which can easily be verified as you have done by checking how many Tests he had played.....
"By the time Langer retired at the end of the 2006-07 Ashes series at home"

 

[pup11]

Hussey has also suffered from the decline in the standards of the Australian batting line up.
He came into a batting lineup which had (besides him)

• Langer,
• Hayden,
• Ponting,
• Martyn
• Clarke,
• Katich,
• Symonds and
• Gilchrist.

It was a fantastic batting lineup and Hussey's runs were not that vital to the side. So there was no pressure on him. In fact, Australia were looking to him to eventually replace Langer at the opening slot and used him there for the first six innings.

By the time Langer retired at the end of the 2006-07 Ashes series at home, Hussey had played 60 Tests averaging a fraction under eighty. It looked great but it was a fabulous line up (besides great attack which rarely allowed great pressure to build up). Damien Martyn had retired earlier in the series.

During this first period, Ponting averaged 81, Hodge, Hayden and Clarke in the fifties and Langer a fraction under 40. Jaques, Gilchrist, Martyn and Symonds averaged in the thirties. The important thing is the wealth of batting at Australia's disposal

The team continued without Martyn and Langer and it was still a fabulous line up

The next loss came with Gilchrist retiring at the end of 2007-08 series against India at home. For the next series in West Indies even Hayden was not available and the Austrlian side did not look all that mighty any more.

The side (besides Hussey) now read

• Jaques
• Katich
• Ponting
• Hodge
• Symonds and
• Haddin

It is from here that both Australia's and more strikingly, Hussey's performance seemed to decline.

In 17 Tests since the start of that West Indies series, Hussey has scored

• 934 runs at
• 31.1 per innings with just
• 1 century.

Clearly Hussey's decline seems to coincide with the drop in the quality of batting around him and thereby the increased responsibility.

I tried to look at this another way. Out of 67 Test innings so far, Hussey has played the majority (58 at numbers four and five) with another one at six. The rest have been as opnere mostly at the very start of his career.

Clearly with the kind of batting Australia possessed at the top of the order, number four and five would mostly be expected to come in with a healthy score board. I decided to check how Hussey has fared vis-a-vis runs on the scoreboard as he went in to bat. It makes very interesting reading.

[B]Runs on Board	Innings	Runs	Average	Centuries[/B]
				
[COLOR="DarkRed"]0 to 50 	17	453	28.3	0[/COLOR]

51 to 100	16	720	55.4	1

[COLOR="DarkGreen"]101 Plus	26	1562	71	7[/COLOR]
				
[B]Overall at 4-6	59	2735	341.9	8[/B]

Do these figures tell us something about his temperament. It would appear so.

With all due respect to the stats that you have put up SJS, I don't concur with your theory that Hussey has got cut down to size simply because some of the big names of the Australian batting order have retired.

Let's not forget that Hussey has time and again been the last man standing for Australia, even in the period where there were so many big names in the team, he has almost always scored runs when the chips were well and truly down, which indicates that there is nothing wrong with his temperament.

I think its just the case that Hussey has been struck with this run of poor form at worst possible time from an Aussie POV, form slumps are normal for any batsman, and even the best batsmen go through them, and its just a coincidence in my book that he is suffering from a slump in form at this period of time, and I think too much is being read into it.

 

[SJS]

With all due respect to the stats that you have put up SJS, I don't concur with your theory that Hussey has got cut down to size simply because some of the big names of the Australian batting order have retired.

Let's not forget that Hussey has time and again been the last man standing for Australia, even in the period where there were so many big names in the team, he has almost always scored runs when the chips were well and truly down, which indicates that there is nothing wrong with his temperament.

I think its just the case that Hussey has been struck with this run of poor form at worst possible time from an Aussie POV, form slumps are normal for any batsman, and even the best batsmen go through them, and its just a coincidence in my book that he is suffering from a slump in form at this period of time, and I think too much is being read into it.

Its just an idea - a theory if you please.

There is no way to be certain whether there is a direct link between his run of poor scores and Australia's declining strength in batting. Thats why my piece ends with a question and a tentative suggestion of an answer

Do these figures tell us something about his temperament. It would appear so.

 

[NUFAN]

I seriously think that Mike Hussey is losing his eye-sight.

He wears contacts, but I don't think they are doing the job any longer, his poor ability to pick up the line and length of the ball is a huge concern while batting and he is absolutely terrible catching high balls which makes me think his depth perception is a huge problem for him.

 

[pup11]

I seriously think that Mike Hussey is losing his eye-sight.

He wears contacts, but I don't think they are doing the job any longer, his poor ability to pick up the line and length of the ball is a huge concern while batting and he is absolutely terrible catching high balls which makes me think his depth perception is a huge problem for him.

I said this in the Ashes test thread would repeat it here again, its just not a viable theory, that his eyes are gone, he is facing the same bowlers in ODI's games and doing as well as ever, if his eyes had gone he would struggle against every sort of bowler irrespective of the format.

He scored a very fluent 150 against the England Lions and in the last tour game also scored 75 odd, which shows that its the mental pressure of not having scored any runs in the test match format that's causing him more problems then anything else.

 

[aussie]

I said this in the Ashes test thread would repeat it here again, its just not a viable theory, that his eyes are gone, he is facing the same bowlers in ODI's games and doing as well as ever, if his eyes had gone he would struggle against every sort of bowler irrespective of the format.

He scored a very fluent 150 against the England Lions and in the last tour game also scored 75 odd, which shows that its the mental pressure of not having scored any runs in the test match format that's causing him more problems then anything else.

I think its mental pressure plus a technical flaw that lame FC bowlers can't exploit.

If you remember when Hayden was all over the place in 05, he was hitting big hundreds in the warm-ups as well. His eyes are gone i feel, he is getting bowled leaving alone far too often now. Plus his front fornt is getting out early enough in the early stages of his innings, i cant remember when last he hit one of thse trademark extra-cover drives fluently.

 

[PhoenixFire]

I seriously think that Mike Hussey is losing his eye-sight.

He wears contacts, but I don't think they are doing the job any longer, his poor ability to pick up the line and length of the ball is a huge concern while batting and he is absolutely terrible catching high balls which makes me think his depth perception is a huge problem for him.

Wouldn't you think that he would have done something about it by now though? I mean, he has been out of form for a while now and I'm sure that if it was his eyesight that was going, he would have realised pretty quickly and sought some optician help.

 

[NUFAN]

Wouldn't you think that he would have done something about it by now though? I mean, he has been out of form for a while now and I'm sure that if it was his eyesight that was going, he would have realised pretty quickly and sought some optician help.

Nah, he's in denial perhaps, thinking he'll be right. I read an article the other day where he was saying he felt like he had a bit of a blind spot which he had told Ponting about, but after making that 150 in the Tour match he felt like he had overcome it.

 

[Mister Wright]

Hussey is just showing what many who have followed Australian Domestic cricket closely over the last decade already knew. He would often have great seasons averaging in the 60s, but would rarely back it up the next season averaging low 30s.

Even I must say I was surprised his good run lasted as long as it did.

 

[Dissector]

He came within a whisker of getting a king's pair yesterday with a thick inside edge that ballooned up and was almost caught by Onions.He survived and has a golden opportunity to save his place with a good innings today. He averages around 30 in his last 20 tests which is an awfully long leash even for someone with his record. If he doesn't come good by the end of the Ashes he will probably be dropped.

 

[pup11]

His knock today was a step in the right direction, far from being back to his best, but atleast made some runs and looked much more comfortable than he has looked so far on this tour, so hopefully he would do better in the rest of the series now.