Former Australia batsman Michael Hussey has had the opportunity to play under some of the best captains of world cricket.
From debuting under Ricky Ponting to playing under MS Dhoni for Chennai Super Kings and under Rohit Sharma in Mumbai Indians, former Australia batsman Michael Hussey has had the opportunity to play under some of the best captains of world cricket.
Hussey has played with leaders who have won major tournaments were best in their domain. Talking about the different styles of captaincy in a podcast called Hostpot with Chetan Narula, Hussey said they were different characters but had the same desire to win.
1. Ricky Ponting
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Hussey had made his debut under Ricky Ponting. Praising the former skipper, Hussey said that Ponting was someone who dragged the whole team towards victory.
“They are all very different characters. Ricky Ponting was so competitive and led from the front and backed his players 100%. He wanted to win so badly and dragged the whole team along with him,” Hussey said.
2. Michael Clarke
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Hussey, who played in Australia’s 2015 World Cup-winning squad said that captain Michael Clarke had a very good tactical brain. Hussey has played 21 Tests, 33 ODIs, and 11 T20Is under him.
“I would say Michael Clarke was very tactical and very good brain on the cricket field, knew when to bowl certain bowlers and things like that,” Hussey said.
3. MS Dhoni
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Hussey played six seasons of IPL for CSK under MS Dhoni.
Describing Captain Cool, Hussey said: “MSD… he has a great intuition for the game but he is also very calm and cool, backs his players enormously and shows a lot of faith in them”.
4. Rohit Sharma
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About India’s limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma, Hussey said: “Rohit was much the same. He is very calm under pressure and tactically very sound as well.
"All of them had this ability to take the pressure off players and I think that was a good thing,” Hussey added.
5. Comparing leadership skills of captains
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Hussey compared the leadership skills between two-time World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting and the only captain to have all three ICC tournaments to his name MS Dhoni.
Hussey said both of them had the same reaction irrespective of success or failure. “Whether the team is going really well or going poorly, they are just consistent and calm with their personalities. Ricky, for example, whether he scored a hundred or scored a duck, he was just the same person. MSD, whether won four games in a row or lost four games in a row, he is exactly the same person. I think that is a very good attribute to have from a leadership point of view and it rubs off on everyone else on the team.
“If you have an emotional character as a captain who is always going up and down, the team rides those waves with the captain, but if a captain is control and calm, and consistent with his personality, then that really helps the team,” Hussey said.
