Noted cricket columnist Peter Roebuck has described Australian middle order batsman Mike Hussey’s rip-roaring form in the current Ashes series as a lesion in application, courage and execution.
Describing the match in Perth as Test cricket at its best, he said in a syndicated column for the Sydney Morning Herald that Hussey’s batting master-class is standing between England and the Ashes urn.
He said both Australia and England were employing aggressive tactics.
“Hussey was superb. Unlike his comrades, he did not need any help from fieldsmen, umpires or luck. Hussey was made of sterner stuff, and his innings was a lesson in application, courage and execution. In truth, he only played two shots with any regularity, the extra-cover drive and the pull,” Roebuck said.
“Hussey has a hunger for the game that shows in every stroke he plays, every moment on the field. Even in the gully, his immersion can be sensed. He is cricketer from tip to tail, utterly involved, single-minded from birth. Here his judgment was quick and his mind uncluttered,” Roebuck claims in his article.
He said that England captain Andrew Strauss had underestimated Hussey’s fitness and judgment, and was paying for it dearly.
“Hussey has always been comfortable against high pace, but until recently he has been less sure against spin. The sight of him stepping down the pitch to counter Graeme Swann in Brisbane was the revelation of the campaign.
Hussey celebrated his hundred, and then put his head down and resumed the fight.
