Mike Hussey backs Michael Clarke ahead of Sydney Test
Australian batting linchpin Mike Hussey has backed the appointment of Michael Clarke as test captain for the Sydney test match, set to start on the 3rd of January.
The final test match of the Ashes series is crucial for the hosts who will at least be looking to draw the series. Even if England manage to draw the last test, the result would see http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 lose the Ashes at home for the first time since
1986.
They are playing for their battered pride in the test, and would go all out to avoid a series defeat against their biggest rivals England.
The 35 year old Hussey who is one of the veterans of the current Aussie line-up thinks that Clarke would be an aggressive captain and would try and stay ahead of the game. The right handed Clarke has had a lean trot in the series with
the bat, yet he is confident that he would make an impression with the bat in the crucial final match.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 who is affectionately called Pub by his teammates has an impeccable record as captain in limited overs cricket, under his leadership the Aussies have won 13 out of their 18 matches. They also made it to the finals of the T20 championship
last May under him.
Hussey hopes that Clarke would be able to carry his captaincy form in the longest and most demanding format of the game.
"He'll be an aggressive captain, always looking to take wickets out there, make changes to the field and with the bowlers," Hussey said. "He'll be searching for a wicket all the time, and will always want the game going forward. That's
the way Australians have played our cricket as long as I can remember. I think he'll be a very positive captain."
"I guess the challenge is to be able to maintain that over the five days," Hussey said. "It's going to be a hard old graft. But we have 100% confidence in him. I think he's done a really good job when he's captained the team so far in
his career." This Test assignment is more complicated because it comes at a time when Clarke is struggling for runs, having scored 148 in seven bats against England.
Hussey hopes that the Aussies would be able to get one back at Andrew Strauss’s men and halt their quest of winning a test series in the land of their fiercest rivals for the first time since 1986-87.
"Our focus is trying to get it back to 2-2 - I think that would be a real morale-boosting win for us," he said. "We've got to get better. We hope our Test team is going to get better over the next 12 months to two years, but the process
starts now. Unfortunately, we can't win the Ashes, but if we can get it back to a two-all series leveler, it will be a good result for us."
Hussey would be hoping to carry on his form with the bat that saw him hit two hundreds in the first three tests of the series; however his form left him at the wrong time as the Aussies crumbled heavily in the fourth test of the series
at Melbourne earlier in the week.
Clarke was named captain of the national team after regular captain Ricky Ponting was injured in the third test of the series at the WACA in Perth; he suffered a finger injury while attempting to catch Jonathan Trott in the second English
innings.
He played in the fourth test after taking a dose of pain killers yet was ruled out of the last test after X-Rays showed that the injury worsened during the course of the Melbourne test.
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