mike hussey

Born: 27.05.1975
State: Western Australia
Tests: 16
Role: Middle-order batsman
Bat: Left-hand
Bowl: Right-arm medium
Bat Average: 79.85
Bowl Average: n/a

There have been many people campaigning for Mike Hussey to get his chance at Test level over the last five years.

Most of them have been English.

The term 'Bradman-esque' should be used with extreme caution, but Hussey's record with Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Durham invites comparison with the very best.

Despite averaging over 70 in four of his five seasons in county cricket, Hussey looked like another in the long line of Australians to fill their boots in England without ever getting the chance to wear the baggy green.

But a rib injury to Justin Langer gave Hussey his Test chance at the age of 30 and with 15,313 first-class runs behind him - a record for an uncapped Australian.

He failed in his first game, but made a century in his second and hasn't looked back. Hussey took just 166 days to reach 1,000 Test runs, breaking Andrew Strauss' newly-minted record.

He has scored four centuries in his first 11 Tests, and his amazing international record has earned him the nickname Mr Cricket.

He is a compact, tidy player and his sound technique is the basis of his runscoring.

He has patience in abundance but once set is an attractive strokemaker, as any English county attack will testify.

Hussey has now made himself an integral part of the Australian side in both forms of the game.

In one-dayers he has taken on the Michael Bevan 'finisher's' role, and astonishingly he has an average on the happy side of 70 in both Tests and one-day internationals.

Hussey has shown a cool head and leadership qualities, not least when adding 107 for the tenth wicket with Glenn McGrath against South Africa, and even though he has come late to the side there are those who talk about the prolific Western Australian as a potential successor to Ricky Ponting.