Michael Hussey spoke about some of great batsmen of the game who at one point of his career captained him. Former Australia batsmen also explained one similar point that could be observed between Ricky Ponting and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Hussey on his IPL captains
While Hussey played under Ponting and Michael Clarke in Australia team, he was captained by Dhoni and Rohit Sharma for Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians respectively in the Indian Premier League. Recently the veteran went on to speak about his four captains. He said in a podcast with Chetan Narula, “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.”
Clarke, according to Hussey was a tactical skipper with a very good brain. “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.
Hussey then elaborated about his IPL skippers. He called Dhoni a great institution for the game and also mentioned how Rohit Sharma is a bit similar to Dhoni when to comes to maintaining cool on the field. “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.”
Similarity between Ponting and Dhoni
Ponting and Dhoni are considered to be two of the greatest captains in the history of the game and have had great contribution to the respective country’s cricket. Hussey pointed out how these two do not change themselves at all and remain constant in every situation.
“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.”
