Hussey's contrast, and the Gabba flattened

Michael Hussey's has been a curious international career so far. In his first three years he was so good that his average was closer to the Don than anyone else's had been (among those who'd played at least 15 Tests). Graeme Pollock, George Headley and Herbert Sutcliffe all averaged a touch above 60, but Hussey strode above them all with an average of 80.58, having made 15 scores of 50 or more in 19 matches.

Then came the inevitable slump. The next couple of years, which, unfortunately from his point of view, were extremely busy ones for Australia, also coincided with a terrible run for Hussey - the average dropped from almost 85 to 52 in 21 matches. During a span of six series in a little over a year, only once did he remotely resemble a run machine, when he scored 394 in four Tests in India. Three times in those six series his average dipped below 23. When he scored 34 and 20 in the second Test against India earlier this year, his career average dipped below 50 for the first time since his first Test.

It's since moved back up beyond 50 but Hussey will have a job on his hands to keep it above that benchmark, especially since Australia have tours to Sri Lanka and South Africa scheduled over the next 10 months. A break-up of Hussey's career numbers shows that while he has generally been unstoppable at home, he has been a much lesser force when he travels. His home average is more than 65, but apart from Bangladesh, in each of the other countries he has played in he averages less than 45, and in countries other than India, less than 40. As the table below shows, Hussey's home and away numbers are extremely skewed - even more than Mahela Jayawardene's - but while Jayawardene has attracted plenty of negative comment for his stats, Hussey has so far escaped similar censure.

Among Australian batsmen who've scored more than 1500 away runs over the last two decades, Hussey's average is among the poorest, with only Mark Taylor and Michael Slater faring worse. One of the factors that has hurt Hussey when he has played outside Australia is his conversion rate: out of 15 scores of 50-plus, he has converted only three into hundreds; in Australia the corresponding numbers are nine out of 18. The ratio of Tests per 50-plus score is almost the same both home and away - 1.61 in Australia and 1.73 overseas - but the difference in conversion rates means the difference in averages is significant. The Gabba Test against England was another example of this, when he got a start and almost ended up converting it into a doube-hundred.

The 2008-09 season was a poor one for Hussey at home - in five Tests against New Zealand and South Africa he scored one half-century and three ducks - but apart from that he has averaged more than 55 in every season. It's hardly surprising that his home average is the highest among all Australians since 1990.

Hussey's aggression against Graeme Swann might have surprised some, but perhaps the answer lies in the table below: spinners seldom get him out in Australia, and he mostly scores heavily off them. His average against spinners at home is almost 100, which is more than twice his overseas average. In the Ashes series in England, Swann dismissed Hussey twice, at an average of 43.50, and went at 2.93 runs per over. In the Gabba Test, Hussey scored 66 off 100 balls from Swann, a run rate of nearly four per over. If past record is any indication, Hussey could well continue his domination of Swann through the series.

The Gabba flattened
The last sentence of last week's column read thus: "Luckily for those who prefer a more even contest between bat and ball, an Ashes Test at the Gabba is already underway." Those words of wisdom were written after the first day of that Test, when England had been bundled out for 260, but events over the next four days demonstrated the perils of speaking (or writing) too soon. England's top three batted, batted and then batted some more, so that by the end of the fifth day the Test match ended with the highest runs-per-wicket number in the entire history of Tests at the Gabba. And by some distance too: the average of 62.04 was more than 14 runs clear of the previous highest, which was also in a Test involving the same teams but 45 years ago.

In fact, not only is it the highest average at the Gabba, it's also among the most batsman-dominated Tests ever played in Australia. Only twice has a Test in Australia produced a higher average, both in Sydney: in 2003-04 the game against India, Steve Waugh's last Test, had an average of 69.88, while the one against West Indies in 1992-93 produced 64.52 runs per wicket.

Last week's match is also the only contribution by the Gabba to the top 19 matches in Australia in terms of averages, which shows how unusual it is for Brisbane to produce flat decks. Adelaide, on the other hand, figures in the list five times, Melbourne and Sydney four times each, Perth three times and Hobart twice. (Click here for the full list of matches.)