Michael Hussey picks Ricky Ponting over MS Dhoni; IPL over BBL

Michael Hussey, the former Australia cricket legend announced his retirement from all forms of cricket back in 2013. He is one of those rarest players who had got the privilege to play under the captains like MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting, but he was put in a dilemma to chose one out of the two.

Hussey was also known as “Mr. Cricket” who was brilliant with the bat for all the teams he featured in his career. Recently, the former Aussie cricketer was brought under the scanner of some difficult questions and he might have found it difficult to answer those related to his cricketing career.

In an exclusive interview with ESPNCricinfo, the former Australian batsman was asked about the most difficult bowler he had ever faced in his career that has given him sleepless nights, he said, Dale Steyn, the fast bowler from South Africa was the only one that had troubled him a lot in his career.

Hussey played under MS Dhoni while playing for CSK in IPL, whereas Ricky Ponting was the Aussie skipper, but if he had an option to pick one between the two great captains, Mr. Cricket preferred Ricky Ponting over MS Dhoni in ODIs as a better captain.

The former Australian was among the most iconic batsmen of his time but when he was asked to pick one best batsman in each format whom he will love to watch. He selected Brian Lara (Tests), Michael Bevan (ODIs) and AB de Villiers (T20Is). Hussey had the chance to play in the Big Bash League and the Indian Premier League, which are recognized as the two most active cricket leagues, but in terms of competition, Hussey feels IPL is the toughest competition.

There have been a lot of great bowlers in the past, but it’s Sri Lanka’s all-time spinning legend, Muttiah Muralitharan, that Hussey wants to feature in international cricket for Australia. Muralitharan has more than 1,300 international wickets registered under his name.

Michael Hussey has played 185 ODIs and 79 Tests for Australia and got to score more than 10,000 runs. He was known to be the classical player with a very sound batting technique during his run in the international cricket.

Watch it here