Last Updated on 17 hours by Charbel Coorey

Like his elder brother Mike, David Hussey was a late bloomer, making his international debut at the age of 31. Yet, the Victorian was one of the most popular T20 stars during his time. Be it his 88 from just 44 balls against South Africa in 2009 or his 53 off just 29 deliveries against Pakistan during the ICC World T20 in 2010, the Victorian had a knack for producing explosive knocks.

Having said that, Hussey is widely regarded as one of the greatest Australian players to not have played a Test match. With 14,280 First Class runs at an average of 52.50, he would consider himself unlucky to not have played a red-ball game for Australia. Nevertheless, David is still one of the most influential figures in Cricket Victoria, and plays a huge role in their domestic structure, including the head coach of Melbourne Stars for a few seasons.

As for the Indian Premier League, the batting all-rounder has represented Kolkata Knight Riders, Punjab Kings, and Chennai Super Kings. He even led the Punjab-based franchise for a brief period of time.

During an exclusive interview with Arvind Kalyana Krishnan, David Hussey gave his thoughts on the current Australian side, and spoke about the need to give a few youngsters a chance in the long run. The 48-year-old felt that Marcus Harris deserves to return to Australia’s Test team due to his consistent performances in domestic and County cricket. He also backed Steve Smith’s T20 record while stating that the batting maestro still has a lot to offer in the shortest format of the game. Further on, he gave his two cents on Smith’s decision to retire from ODIs.

The former Australian batter also expressed his excitement over the upcoming Big Bash League 2025/26, and the fact that this edition would feature several big names from Pakistan.

While speaking to Arvind, Hussey then spoke about the 2014 edition of the IPL and how he was called to replace the injured Dwayne Bravo. He spoke very highly of MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming. Moreover, he drew light on Suresh Raina’s peak, specifically his 87 from just 25 balls against Punjab during Qualifier 2 in 2014. Hussey spoke about what happened in the dressing room after that match, and the discussions that took place within the CSK camp after Raina’s inhuman knock went in vain.

David Hussey interview: Young Australian batters to watch out for in the coming years

Below is the video and transcript of the interview between Arvind Kalyana Krishnan and David Hussey for CricBlog:

Arvind Kalyana Krishnan: We have the Ashes now this season, and although Australia have a more or less settled team, there have been a lot of calls to bring in new faces and new players and all. And in domestic cricket we have the likes of Fergus O’Neill and a lot of new faces….. So do you think that for the Ashes, Australia should try out some new faces, new blood? Or should they persist with the team? If yes then any new faces you would like to see in the squad?

David Hussey: Yeah, great question. So first and foremost, it’s hard to replace the current group of players because they all perform so well. Like for example, all the bowlers; Cummins, Starc, Hazelwood, Nathan Lyon, they’re all hall of fame bowlers. Even Scott Boland, his record is incredible. So it’s hard to actually get into the team and the three quicks I mentioned are just incredible. If they want to keep playing, and keep performing at that level, it’s hard to break in to that team.

But I think you’ll find in the next 18 months to 2-3 years, I think you’ll find that there will be some fresh blood definitely selected, like Fergus O’Neill he’s definitely earned the right to play for Australia with his domestic Sheffield Shield record.

In terms of the batting, I’d like to see young players like Campbell Kellaway, Oliver Peake, Harry Dixon get a game after they’ve earned the right to play for Australia with good solid performances in Sheffield Shield cricket, and I think that’s where the selectors are heading. So, I think you’d find that the first 4-5 Shield matches will determine the make-up of the Australian Ashes team against England coming up, and I hope Marcus Harris….. I mean he’s still very very young, still knows his game very well, had a great Country cricket season at Lancashire. I hope he gets an opportunity through the weight of runs, and I think if he does get the opportunity again, he will represent Australia with pride and dignity.

Arvind Kalyana Krishnan: As far as the Big Bash League is concerned, Melbourne Stars managed to get Rauf (Haris Rauf) back, and we have a lot of Pakistani players that’ll be playing for the Big Bash this time. Like Babar Azam, Rizwan, and Hasan Ali. So in your opinion, do you think that the fresh new Pakistani players, Pakistan faces, will now lead to more engagement and more people watching the Big Bash League? Since they’re a lot of people from Pakistan in Australia? And with the amount of popularity they have, do you think that Pakistan cricketers can now ensure that Big Bash League now gets better and more popular?

David Hussey: Yeah, well the cricket played in the Big Bash last year was exceptional. It’s gone to a new level again. I see the Stars, they lost the first I think four games and then they come home flying through on the back of Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis’ captaincy and for one, I was rapped that Haris Rauf is going to come back to the Melbourne Stars. I was fortunate enough to coach him in one of his first years and he was just just an amazing person to be around. Very infectious personality and the number one quality he has is he competes every time and it’s not too dissimilar to Mohammad Rizwan for the Renegades, who I think will be a standout player. He’s world-class and when he’s on-song, there’s no better entertainer in the world.

Babar Azam at the Sydney Sixers, I think he will be exceptional and don’t forget Shaheen Afridi as well who’s arguably one of the best left-arm bowlers, left-arm quicks throughout the world. So it’s great to see these Pakistani players coming through and playing in the BBL. They all compete, and they all want to win, but they’re also good quality people. They just make the clubs better in the BBL and the standard of the cricket played will go to a new level. For one, I can’t wait for the BBL to start.

Arvind Kalyana Krishnan: As far as Australian cricket is concerned, Steve Smith had recently retired from one-dayers to prolong his career in Tests and he also wants to play the 2028 Olympics which will be in the T20 format. But, his record in one-dayers is very very good, and in the T20I side, Australia are more or less settled. So do you think that Steve Smith made a mistake in retiring in one-dayers and wanting to play in T20s or should he have left T20s to play more one-dayers?

David Hussey: Well, it’s an interesting debate. Only Steve will really know what he wants to do with his cricket, and I think he has prioritised Test cricket which is fantastic because I reckon he’s among the top 5 Australia batsmen of all time in Test match cricket, and he deserves to go out when he wants to go out.

In terms of one-day cricket, I think Steve would’ve sat down with the Australian head coach and selectors and figured out a plan, a timeline, am I going to be a part of the next 50-over World Cup, and if they had have said no then well, let’s finish up and get some games into the new and younger players coming through, who could be the next foundation of Australia’s World Cup. So I think Steve was very selfless there, and putting Australian cricket ahead of himself, and I still think he’s got a lot to offer in T20 game. Not only his experience, but he’s also a fine fine cricketer, especially at the top of the order. His BBL record for the Sydney Sixers is remarkable, incredible! And he just keeps improving every year, but also see, he’s got a great cricket brain. So therefore, he’s got to help a lot of people in that aspect.

Arvind Kalyana Krishnan: So this question is about you. So as far as the Indian Premier League is concerned, you’ve played a lot for Punjab, and then in 2014, you were a part of the commentary panel, you were then called to play for CSK as a replacement for Dwayne Bravo, and you actually performed very well in that season. I think in the Playoffs against Mumbai Indians you and Suresh Raina also played well. So if you can just describe your experience playing in that one season, in 2014, to play with CSK? I mean everybody speaks about how MS Dhoni and Fleming often keep the environment very well, and there was one match where MS Dhoni made you bowl the last over as well. So how was it to play at CSK in that season with MS Dhoni? And to play with someone like Suresh Raina, who at that time was at his peak?

David Hussey: Yeah, they’re fond memories actually. I was commentating at that time and then I get the call “Can you come and fill in for Dwayne Bravo?” from a good friend Stephen Fleming, who’s a head coach, and my brother was playing at Mumbai Indians that year, so yeah, that was his year where he wasn’t playing for CSK family, but getting the call I don’t know, just made me motivated to do really well for a new team…..

And you walk in to the dressing room and see greats like MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Jadeja was in the room. Brendon McCullum was also in the room, also had Mohit Sharma, with whom I got on really well with. Ashwin as well. So we had a really really good nucleus of some fine players.

I remember the first game back, I think it was against Bangalore and it was on a used pitch up in Ranchi, and I didn’t bat very well but MS gave me the ball in maybe the last over against Yuvraj Singh and AB de Villiers, and just defending 10 runs and I was terrible. I bowled awfully, and cost us the game, but what I do remember from that is…..CSK family, every team they play, whether they win or lose, everything’s exactly the same. It’s very calm and cool; what can we learn from the game, where can we improve, how we going to improve so it was a very cool, calm, and collective dressing room.

Then just spending some dressing room time with MS Dhoni, just asking him different questions about how to play certain situations. I know I was getting older at that stage and probably at the back end of my career, but he still had wonderful advice for me and something that I really pass on to the next generation of Australian players and hopefully I can help achieve their goals in playing for Australia or in the IPL as well, but Suresh Raina like you said before, he was at the peak of his prowess and I remember that game against Mumbai Indians in the…..I think it was the Eliminator and, I think my role in the team was to just get him on strike. He was seeing the ball like they were water balloons and they were huge. Every time he hit the ball, it either went for four or six. It was an absolute privelage to play with the CSK family and some of the great players I’ve just mentioned.

Arvind Kalyana Krishnan: So in that season, in the second Qualifier match against Punjab, you had a huge total to chase, and Suresh Raina scored 87 in 25 balls and was then run-out by George Bailey. So in that match where CSK came so close and you lost a very close match which had so many emotions in it, how was the dressing room after that match? Like did Suresh Raina show any kind of frustration or anything?

David Hussey: Well, it’s hard to remember. Initially, when Raina got run-out, because I think I was the incoming batsman so I didn’t see him in the dressing room, but I do remember that he was playing out of his skin, and he was going to win the game by himself.

It was a huge target to chase. I think Sehwag got a lot of runs and I think every time we bowled, it either went for four or six again, and small ground, fast outfield. The ball seemed to be travelling miles, and it was a huge total to chase.

I was still pretty confident that we could chase it down. We had McCullum, we had MS Dhoni. We had Raina, Jadeja as well. So we had some good players coming in. I think Dwayne Smith as well I think he was playing, Faf, so we had some really good players, so still supremely confident.

I remember at the end of the game…..I mean I didn’t bat really well, I think I got out for under 10 I think…..It was under 5 even. So, I remember after the end of the game we were all pretty disappointed because we felt that we had the team and the squad to actually go all the way that year. Unfortunately we didn’t play very well and yeah, didn’t score the runs.

The dressing room was a bit quiet, flat, but yeah, it was “What are we going to do next year” and “How are we going to win the trophy next year” and I think that’s the strength of CSK. They never get too far ahead of themselves and they never get to down on themselves. They’re always very well planned. I think Stephen Fleming runs a great show and he’s complemented by MS Dhoni, who’s a master tactician, a great player and he’s still doing it today. It’s fantastic to watch.

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