David Hussey

David John Hussey (born 15 July 1977) is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer. Hussey is a right-handed batter and can also bowl right-arm off breaks. He is the younger brother of former Australian cricketer Michael Hussey. He was captain of the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League.

Australian domestic career

Hussey's cricketing prowess was perhaps first widely acknowledged after an innings for the Victorian Bushrangers in 2003–04, his first full season of first-class cricket. Hussey scored 212 not out as his side scored a record 455/7 in the 4th innings to beat New South Wales in Newcastle. He finished the Australian season with an aggregate 857 runs at an average of 61. In 2004–05 season, his four-day form let him down and he was dropped from the Victorian Pura Cup side. Hussey unsuccessfully asked Cricket Victoria for a release to return to Western Australia.

English cricket

Hussey started his English cricket career at Horsham Cricket Club in Sussex. From 2004, Hussey played for county side Nottinghamshire. In the English summer of 2004, Hussey score 1208 runs for Nottinghamshire. In 2005, he had another prolific season, scoring 1231 runs. He hit two centuries and one double century, 232* against Warwickshire as his county went on to win the championship. In the subsequent county season, Hussey scored a career best 275, off just 227 balls and with 14 sixes. His record for the year was an exceptional 1,219 runs at 93.76.

Hussey returned to Notts for the majority of the 2010 season, and left the county at the end of the 2013 season, signing off with a century against Somerset in the County Championships. During his final season, he also helped Notts beat Glamorgan by 87 runs to win the YB40 final at Lord's, their first one-day trophy since 1989.

International career

In 2004, Hussey played four one-day internationals (ODIs) for Australia A, scoring a century against the West Indies. Hussey did not play another one day international after scoring his century against Scotland until he was selected for the 1st ODI against England at the MCG on 16 January 2011. During England's innings, Hussey took figures of 2/42 off six overs with the ball, but was not required to bat during Australia's successful run chase. On 23 January 2011 in the third ODI match in a series against England, he scored 68* to take Australia to victory and a 3–0 series lead over England with four games to play. On 6 February 2011 he scored 60 in the 3rd ODI match against England as Australia completed a resounding 6–1 series win at the WACA in Perth.

Despite his exemplary first class average of 55.27 (as of the end of the 2010/11 season), Hussey has never been selected to play a test match for Australia. Outside of India, Hussey is the only batsman to average more than 54 at first class level, but never be selected for a test.

In the 2011–2012 tri-series held in Australia against India and Sri Lanka, Hussey scored the third most runs between the three teams, making 439 runs with an average 54.88.

Indian Premier League

Hussey was selected for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League to a contract of $625,000.

In the fourth season, Hussey attracted the biggest price for an Australian on the opening day of the two-day auction at Bangalore and was contracted by Kings XI Punjab for US$1.4 million. He is currently the second-most-expensive overseas IPL cricketer, after Mahela Jayawardene.

In the 2012 Indian Premier League, due to the absence of injured Kings XI Punjab captain Adam Gilchrist, Hussey was the skipper of Kings XI until Gilchrist returned.

Hussey represented Chennai Super Kings for the IPL 2014. He was the replacement for the injured Dwayne Bravo.

Hussey was appointed as the chief mentor for Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2019 IPL.

Career best performances