Hussey keen to pinch hit for Australia

The familiar face of Mike Hussey has been lending his expertise in the Australia camp during  their World T20 campaign, but don't expect the champion batsman to be involved in a full-time capacity any time soon.

Hussey has spent the last two weeks with Darren Lehmann's charges in India as a batting consultant, passing on tips, throwing balls and talking cricket with Australia's batsmen as they gear up for tonight's virtual quarter-final with India in Mohali.

As the 40-year-old's playing days slowly wind down, the veteran is already looking ahead to the next phase of his career, and this short stint with the Australian setup has given him a glimpse into what it takes to be a professional coach.

"I’m already interested in it (coaching), definitely, but I’m not sure I’m keen to be in it in a full-time capacity because if you’re with an international team you’re pretty much on the road for 10 months a year and that’s certainly one of the reasons why I retired," Hussey said.

"It’s certainly not something that I’m in the short term looking to get back into on a full-time basis, but perhaps down in the future and certainly coming in as a consultant type and helping out for a few weeks here or there, is something that’s really interesting."

"I’ve really enjoyed it, being back around the team and I’ve done a lot of observing and asked a lot of questions I guess, just trying to learn as much as I can again off the coaches and just obviously try and offer as many of my experiences to the players as well and observations," Hussey added.

"It’s been really good, really interesting and I think the team is building nicely. I think the environment around the team is really, really good."

Australia are on the lookout for a specialist batting and bowling coach after Michael Di Ventuo took up the role of Surrey head coach in England, while Craig McDermott will step down at the end of the tournament.

Former fielding coach and Test batsman Greg Blewett is the interim batting coach, and while Hussey wasn't asked if he'd be interested in replacing Di Venuto, there is scope for him to return in a consultancy role.

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"Darren (Lehmann, Australia coach) has definitely spoken to me, he’s shown me the Future Tours Program and we haven’t officially started looking at things, but maybe there might be some little windows open up where hopefully I can be involved," Hussey said.

"But nothing formal yet, it’s just in the initial stages, and as I said, it’s just really difficult for anyone really to be full-time, when they’ve got families at home and being able for that length of time so to bring in a consultant type, it works well for that purpose but also I think it works OK for the team as well.

"Having a different voice every now and then and different sets of eyes to pick up on things is quite good."

Hussey's commitment in the Caribbean Premier League has ruled him out of returning for the winter tour of Sri Lanka, but says he's been keen to return in any scenario, particularly tours involving the shortest format of the game.

"Obviously having the experience through the sub-continent and playing a lot of IPL and T20 cricket, still playing a bit of T20 cricket, I feel pretty close to that sort of game so that’s somewhere where I can feel like I can add some value," he said.

"But obviously played a lot of the other formats as well and I love the other formats of the game.

"Test cricket is the game I love the most so I would be more than happy to be involved in any."

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