Former Australia cricketer and the current CSK batting coach Michael Hussey on Saturday (April 9) opened up on the legendary Allan Border’s influence in his career, saying he switched to becoming a left-handed batter from being a right-hander during his formative days.

Hussey played 79 Tests, 185 ODIs, and 38 T20Is for Australia, amassing 12,000+ runs across formats with 22 centuries.

The southpaw has had a long association with CSK, first as a player and then as a batting coach. Hussey was instrumental in CSK’s IPL triumphs back in 2010 and 2011. He was appointed CSK's batting coach in January 2018.

"My cricketing hero was Allan Border, who is a left-handed batsman from Australia, and I can tell you a funny little story. When I was about eight or nine years of age until then I was a right handed batsman. But, I loved Allan Border so much that I changed to be a left handed batsman like Allan Border,” Hussey said ahead of CSK’s match against SRH, as quoted by IANS.

"I loved the way he played his cricket, he was tough, he never gave his wicket away he worked very hard, played with a lot of passion, so he was certainly my hero growing up," he added.

Michael Hussey has also tasted immense success as a batting coach as CSK won the IPL titles in 2018 and 2021 editions.

Sharing an insight into the coaching philosophy of CSK, Hussey said: "...we are all equal, and we try and treat everyone equal. Whether you are Jadeja, or MS Dhoni or Deepak, or you are the 25th player in the squad, you know we try and treat everyone the same, we try and treat everyone with respect, and the goal is to try and improve every player. Improve them as a cricketer, but also try and help them improve as a people and as characters as well. And, I think if we can do that and everyone can try and help each other then we are doing a good job."

(With IANS inputs)