Less than a fortnight removed from Michael Hussey’s exact age when he made his belated entry to Test cricket, fellow versatile left-handed opener Matthew Renshaw will likewise hope the undulations of his career have suitably armed him for his latest foray in the Baggy Green.
Renshaw, who Alex Carey today all but confirmed would be a straight swap for the ousted Jake Weatherald for the second NRMA Insurance Test against Bangladesh, will on Saturday be 13 days younger than Hussey was when he began his extraordinary late-blooming Test career in 2005.
And there was an overriding sense of new beginnings for Renshaw on his first day back with an Australian side at a low ebb, despite the 30-year-old having already played 14 Tests – a major headstart on Hussey at the same age.
Marnus Labuschagne, who looks to have seen off pressure to hold down his own spot for now, took his fellow Queenslander to two cafes on Wednesday morning – or perhaps it was the other way around given Renshaw, as the only man to have scored multiple first-class hundreds in Mackay, is well-acquainted with the place.
Not long after the long-time state teammates discussed their craft over a brew, television cameras and a team analyst shifted their focus onto the squad’s latest addition as he trained on the Harrup Park practice wickets. All the while, Labuschagne kept Renshaw under his wing as the pair discussed the traits of the net bowlers they faced while batting in the same net.
“He’s definitely matured as a cricketer – as you do,” Carey said of Renshaw ahead of Test cricket’s debut at the impressively touched-up northern Queensland venue. “You move into your thirties, and you learn a lot about yourself. You learn a lot about the game, and the challenges that come with that.
“He’s got the balance between attack and defence … there’s been a lot made about the wickets that have been produced over the past couple of years, and for him to score three hundreds last (Shield season shows) he’s got the game in all conditions.
“Over in India when he did play, he scored runs. Test century at the SCG all those years ago – and he’s an even better player now. He comes into the group in a really good space and looking forward to seeing ‘Renners’ out there alongside Trav(is Head).”
That 184 in Renshaw’s fourth Test, against Pakistan in Sydney back in 2016-17 when he was just 20, was supposed to herald a new age for Australia, with selectors having pivoted to a fresh-faced group of young batters.
Yet the England-born leftie didn’t even last the full year, as he found himself dumped for the ensuing summer’s Ashes. There have been recalls since: for the final Test in South Africa following the sandpaper scandal in 2018; and in Sydney against the Proteas in 2023, ostensibly owing to his capabilities in the middle-order against spin with a tour of India only weeks away. But neither time did Renshaw manage to establish himself.
It is in those years away from the Test team where the Hussey comparison hits. Like the man who became a 79-Test legend, Renshaw has seen a steady uptick in his Sheffield Shield numbers in the three seasons leading into this call-up.
For Western Australia, Hussey averaged 34.80 in the 2002-03 Shield season; 41.77 in ’03-04; and then 55.46 in ’04-05. For Queensland, Renshaw had so-so campaigns in ’23-24 and ’24-25 (averaging 23.93 and 29.17 respectively) on undoubtedly more seam-friendly wickets than the ones Hussey encountered 20 years earlier. As Carey alluded to, he then hit three tons in 10 innings in the first half of the ’25-26 season.
Both Hussey and Renshaw impressed in first-class matches outside the regular confines of Shield games too. For Hussey there was the avalanche of 19 centuries in five seasons of county cricket; Renshaw meanwhile has scored four first-class hundreds for Australia A and the Prime Minister’s XI since 2022-23.
Yet both had major setbacks at state level that had both thinking their futures were in severe jeopardy.
Hussey’s loss of his WA spot at the end of the ’02-03 season had a crystalising effect. Speaking to cricket.com.au in 2023, he recalled telling himself: “… your chances of playing for Australia are pretty much none now, so you might as well just go back to enjoying the game, playing your way, being yourself, and enjoy playing for WA.”
Renshaw faced a similar fate in 2020 when he was dumped by Queensland. “I was always thinking about playing for Australia and I just started struggling with my batting and my mindset,” he told cricket.com.au of the axing that preceded a brief move to the middle-order. “It could have been the end of my Queensland career. But I knew at that point I had to change something.”
Another overlap in their narratives is the limited-overs component to their call-ups. Hussey’s case to open in the Test side (and later transition to the middle-order) had been strengthened by a series of smart ODI innings which had him averaging 123.50 from 18 games before earning his Baggy Green.
Renshaw’s own white-ball stock has risen in similar fashion. Before earning a late and unexpected T20 World Cup call-up earlier this year, there were a trio of calming middle-order hands in his maiden ODI series against India last summer. He then bounced back from a rotten run in Lahore and Dhaka in June, scoring 4, 2, 0 and 0 in the space of 10 days, to flex his blossoming hitting power with a match-winning 89no off 52 balls in a 3-0 T20I series win over Bangladesh.
“The more you play, the more equipped you are to all different circumstances,” said Carey. “For Renners, he’ll adapt really quickly … he’s in a really good place mentally.
“His cricket’s showing that. He’s got a young family now. He’s played some white-ball cricket, so he’s been around the group a fair bit in the past couple of years, and every challenge that’s come his way, he has really stood up to it.”
After hitting 1 and 29 in his first Test, Hussey struck the first of his 19 Test hundreds in his second. By the time he retired eight years later, he had amassed more than 6,000 runs. Renshaw could dream to do worse.
NRMA Insurance Bangladesh Test series
First Test: Bangladesh won by nine wickets
Second Test: August 22-26, Great Barrier Reef Arena, Mackay, 10am (local)
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
Bangladesh squad: Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Mehidy Hasan Miraz (vc), Soumya Sarkar, Shadman Islam, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Mominul Haque Showrab, Mushfiqur Rahim, Litton Das, Amite Hasan, Jaker Ali Anik, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Syed Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain Chowdhury, Musfik Hasan, Litton Das, Shoriful Islam
