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Find a solution and fail better, Phil

Roar Pro
31st January, 2014
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Phil Hughes. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)
Roar Pro
31st January, 2014
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1141 Reads

The bloke with the reddest ‘shnoz’ and the best backhand in the game, Stanislas Wawrinka, has the prose of Irish poet Samuel Beckett inked on the inside of his left forearm – “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Kept at arms length 14 times on the trot by Novak Djokovic. 14 losses in a row. Without acknowledging the freak pulling his pants down time and time again, my young bloke would call that an ‘epic fail’.

Fail better.

12 defeats in succession. Beaten without firing a shot. Not taking a set off Rafael Nadal in a dozen bouts on court would most certainly be filed in an eight-year-old’s ‘epic fail’ file, despite the Spaniard’s mastery of the tennis cosmos.

Fail better.

In 2013, Stan Wawrinka went achingly close to knocking off ‘The Joker’ in a five-hour, five-set slugfest at Rod Laver Arena but was pipped at the post.

Later in the year at Flushing Meadows they went toe to toe again in another pulsating five-setter over four gruelling hours, only for the Serb to prevail once again.

Yet Stan believed.

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On his way to taking out this summer’s Australian Open crown, Wawrinka became the first man ever to go through Djokovic and Nadal on his way to claiming the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup.

“You have to fight,” Wawrinka said after his semi final win.

“I know that the only thing I can control is what I’m doing off the court: my practice, how I do my schedule.

“I always try to improve. I always try to find solution to change my game a little bit, to improve, to find solution when I play against the top player.”

Fail better.

Like many batsmen before him, Phil Hughes has been kicked in the guts by the Australian selectors a number of times.

His recall to the Australian squad this week, after Shaun Marsh’s body failed him for the umpteenth time, may be his last chance to cement his place in the top order and I for one am hoping he finally makes good his undeniable potential.

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Hughes has enjoyed great success in South Africa, most notably during his debut series in 2009 when he topped the tour aggregates with 415 runs at 69.16, including his magnificent brace of hundreds at Durban.

Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel knew full well of his susceptibility on or about off stump but Hughes flayed the best attack in the world through point and the covers with his unorthodox style.

But like Icarus, the little left-hander may well have flown too close to the sun and within four months he had his wings melted by the ‘Jesus Christ posse’ of Andrew Flintoff at Cardiff and Lord’s.

It was not to be the first time Hughes would get the chop yet, with each return, has he improved?

Has he, as Wawrinka would say, found a “solution to change my game a little bit, to improve, to find solution when I play against the top player”?

After 49 Test innings, with an average of 32.66, you would suggest not.

Hughes simply keeps finding a way to get out. For a left-hander who can be so utterly brutal outside off stump, he gets caught behind a hell of a lot – 19% of his dismissals.

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In fact, he gets caught a lot – full stop. Two out of three trips to the crease he gets pouched.

And you’d think it’s pace that generally stitches him up. Au contraire!

Of his 47 trips to the crease in Test cricket, finger spinners Ravi Ashwin, Rangana Herath, Paul Harris, Graeme Swann, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Ravi Jadeja along with the leggies of Danish Kaneria have fixed him up in 18 times.

That’s 38% a spinner has sent him packing.

Most of the stars have been dropped at some stage in their careers.

Matthew Hayden and Damien Martyn were guns at an early age for their respective states and burst onto the Test scene but were sent back to the Sheffield Shield after poor performances, both at the hands of South Africa.

Hayden twice. Martyn was sent to purgatory for six years after his infamous Sydney brainfade.

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Yet at the same stage of their careers as Hughes, and after their own kicks in the guts, they averaged 49.56 and 48.83 respectively.

Despite being the chosen one, Ricky Ponting lost his place in the Test side to Darren Lehmann on the 1998 tour of Pakistan through poor form and ill-discipline.

He returned to become Australia’s leading run-scorer in Test and ODI cricket. After 49 innings, Ponting averaged 41.96.

Justin Langer was sent packing after being thrown to the wolves four times, twice against the firepower of Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Ian Bishop.

Steve Waugh was replaced by his brother Mark, despite being a regular fixture in the Test line-up for years.

Yet at the same stage of their careers as Hughes, and after fighting their own way back, they averaged 40.10 and 40.13 respectively.

Two gritty left-handed openers of a far more advance vintage than Hughes were also dropped, returned through weight of runs and found a ‘solution’.

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After 49 innings, Simon Katich averaged 40.22 while after marching out to take guard 21 times, Chris Rogers is averaging 40.43.

All of them returned, having found a way, and flourished.

It is abundantly clear at this point of his career, and with the opportunities he has been afforded, a batsmen of the calibre of Phil Hughes, who has piled on 24 first-class hundreds at the age of 25, has to have averaged at least 40 runs per knock.

For God’s sake, even bloody Shane Watson was making 41.55 per innings at this stage.

Find a solution and fail better, Phil.

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