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Australian opener Phil Hughes has been warned that his technique must keep getting tighter or he will be “left behind” as an international batsman.
The Australians’ 267-run victory over England in the third Ashes Test did not obscure the fact Hughes, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and No.6 Steve Smith have an assortment of batting problems that would have sunk the team without the contributions of Mike Hussey and Shane Watson.
Simon Katich’s Achilles injury means Hughes has the chance to establish himself as a Test batsman for the first time since being dropped on last year’s Ashes tour, but his two forays at the WACA Ground were far from promising.
Bowled between a crooked bat and pad in the first innings, Hughes then edged a ball angled simply across him in the second.
A barnstorming first Test series in South Africa early in 2009 is receding further and further into the past and Australian coach Tim Nielsen pointed out that beginner’s luck played a significant role for Hughes in that series.
“Always when you start playing Test cricket, you come in and nobody really knows anything about you, you’ve got a little window where you’re almost a novelty and that can mean some success,” Nielsen told AAP.
“He had a bit of luck at various times in South Africa and that gave him some confidence and momentum.
“He can’t expect to just be the player he was then and have success now because the rest of the game keeps moving forward, so if he doesn’t he’ll get left behind.
“He’s conscious the way he’s more than likely going to get out is caught in the slips cordon, being a shorter man they’re going to attack him with short-pitched bowling a fair bit of the time, and he’s working hard at that.
“If they happen to get wide he’s got to have the confidence to whack those balls and get a score and once he does that the pressure goes back on the bowler a little bit.”
Nielsen stressed Hughes needed to think calmly about his batting and get away from the panic-inducing notion that each innings might be his last.
“Even if you’re only 21 you can get anxious thinking ‘if I don’t get runs here I’m going to be back on my backside again playing for NSW’,” Nielsen said.
“His game is developing all the time, the one difference from the past is this time he hasn’t had a mountain of runs at domestic level coming into his Test matches here, so the big challenge is for him is not to panic or think every day is his last.
“At the top of the order every mistake you make can be magnified and you can find yourself sitting on the edge so we’ve got to be patient with him.”
Ponting’s diminishing returns as a batsman have been compounded by a fractured finger that will seriously hinder his preparations for Boxing Day, but Nielsen insisted he was still the man for No.3 in the Australian order.
“His best place for us to bat is No.3, for two reasons, one because that’s where he plays his best and secondly he’s the best No.3 we’ve got,” said Nielsen.
“It was only a month ago that he got three 70s in a row in India and got run out twice, so he’s finding ways of getting out.”
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