Mike Hussey names England as World T20 Dark Horse

Former Australian cricketer Mike Hussey believes England will be the Dark Horse at the ICC 2016 World T20, cricket.com.au reports. Though the 40-year-old named hosts India and Australia as favourites for the global event, he feels the leadership qualities of skipper Eoin Morgan and coach Trevor Bayliss gives England a competitive edge ahead of the other teams in the fray.

Following a dismal showing at the 2015 World Cup where they were knocked out of the group stages itself, England has completely changed their outlook towards the shorter formats of the game adopting an aggressive, fearless approach most evidently displayed by the likes of all-rounder Ben Stokes and Morgan himself.

While Kevin Pietersen said that he expected England to struggle at the World T20, former cricketer Andrew Flintoff was of the opinion that the young side had the potential to lift the coveted trophy. Hussey was clearly siding with the latter when he made his thoughts clear about the front-runners for the tournament.

"I definitely think they can win it. There's so much talent and ability in that England squad," Hussey said, before adding that it was the presence of Morgan and Bayliss at the helm of England’s affairs that had him thinking along those lines.

"They (Morgan and Bayliss) are two guys who are going to keep things very calm," Hussey told The Daily Mail UK. "T20 cricket is high stress, high profile and high-octane and sometimes you can get carried away with that emotion whether things are going really well or poorly.

You can really ride those huge waves and I think those two guys in the leadership roles will be very calm throughout the whole campaign.”

Further elaborating on Morgan’s leadership abilities and ability to influence the younger players, Hussey said that he had first-hand experience of the Englishman’s attributes following their outing together for the Sydney Thunder franchise in the KFC Big Bash League in 2014-15.

"He was fantastic around the dressing-room, really tried to impart his knowledge and experience onto our younger guys, who really were hanging off every word he was saying," Hussey said.

The left-hander, who will be spending two weeks with the Australian team as a batting consultant, expressed his admiration for Morgan’s destructive abilities with the bat as well.

"But then as a player, I really loved watching him bat because you just don’t know where he’s going to hit it. When he’s on song and firing he can be extremely destructive,” he said. “He’s played some of the best T20 innings I’ve ever seen."