Michael Hussey turns down England Test batting coach role to take part-time Cricket Australia consultancy

Michael Hussey has rejected an offer to become England’s Test batting coach and instead accepted a part-time consultancy role with Cricket Australia in Australia, following talks last month with England’s new Test head coach Stephen Fleming and ahead of next year’s Ashes.

Hussey is believed to have chosen the Cricket Australia contract because it allows him to accommodate existing commitments, including coaching in the Hundred, work in other franchise tournaments and commentary and punditry for Fox Sports in Australia. The 51-year-old served as Welsh Fire’s head coach in the Hundred this year and has worked as a batting coach for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.

Fleming and Hussey have a long professional history, having worked together across 18 years at Chennai Super Kings as player and coach until this year; Fleming held talks with Hussey last month but was unable to persuade him to accept a full-time role with England. Hussey previously coached England on a part-time consultant contract during their victorious T20 World Cup campaign in 2022.

A permanent Test batting coach role for England would have carried greater time demands, with England’s winter schedule set to include tours to South Africa, Bangladesh and Australia before the home Ashes next summer. Australia’s Test itinerary was described in the same report as similarly intense, but Hussey’s Cricket Australia arrangement reportedly permits him to fit coaching duties around his other commitments. Cricket Australia and the ECB declined to comment.

Separately, Misbah-ul-Haq resigned from Pakistan’s national selection committee after the decision on Monday to drop seven players and change coaches two-thirds of the way through Pakistan’s Test series against England. Following those changes, the Pakistan Cricket Board contacted selectors seeking written explanations for some picks, including Imam-ul-Haq, who started the second game but spent most of it off the field nursing a calf injury, and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan.

The report noted that Rizwan’s selection did not appear controversial: he is described as Pakistan’s third-highest run-scorer of the past decade, was second in their scoring charts in 2024 and 2025, and Babar Azam is now the only Pakistani batter above him in the International Cricket Council rankings. Despite those figures, his keeping was criticised during the Lord’s Test last week and in the first game against Bangladesh in May, when Bangladesh wicketkeeper Litton Das was overheard saying: “His reputation is bad in his country. If he tries to hit and gets out, he won’t be able to enter his country. His reputation is really bad.”

The mid-series squad overhaul has drawn public criticism in Pakistan. Shahid Afridi wrote that he was “not sure what is the logic or reasoning behind the decision” and that “the replacements make no sense”, while Shoaib Malik wrote that “accountability should start with those who broke the system, not with players”, adding that “such mental stress” would cause “the fear of failure [to] settle in the minds of our players”. Additional reporting by Simon Burnton.

Fleming will be permitted to continue searching for a Test batting coach, and the England and Wales Cricket Board may opt to retain Marcus Trescothick, who has impressed in a caretaker role in the current Test series against Pakistan; if Trescothick remains with the Test team, the ECB could appoint a new head of batting coaching across all their development teams.