Australian cricket hall

Boxing Day Test: Amidst the anticipation of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, former Australian batter Michael Hussey, freshly inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, delivered a cautionary note to the selectors regarding a specialist opener with a dominating record in Sheffield Shield cricket as a successor of David Warner.

Hussey, who himself began his Test career as an opener, emphasized the significance of rewarding a player who has excelled in the traditional longer format of the game. Despite refraining from naming a specific candidate, he urged the selectors to prioritize a specialist for the first Test against the West Indies in January.

"Opening is one of the toughest jobs in the game," Hussey said to ESPNcricinfo. "So for me personally, if I was selecting, I'd be going for a traditional, proper opener. Someone who has done it for a long period of time. Because if you haven't done it much in your first-class career, it's going to be very difficult to come up the order.