New Zealand captain Ross Taylor says comments he made about wanting Australian opener Phil Hughes to play in the second Test were “tongue in cheek”.
Taylor had declared he’d “love” Hughes to be picked for Hobart after he was dismissed cheaply twice in the same fashion during the first Test in Brisbane.
Black Caps paceman Chris Martin had the wood on the out-of-sorts opener, having him caught twice at gully by Martin Guptill, and also dropped once in the slips.
Hughes was given another chance by Australian selectors on Thursday when he was named to play the second Test at Bellerive starting on Friday despite scores of 10 and seven at the Gabba.
Asked whether that was a wish come true, Taylor backed away from his comments made at his post-Test media conference.
“I made a tongue-in-cheek comment that was made probably made a bit more of than it probably should have been,” Taylor said.
“He’s still a world class opener, he’s still got three hundreds for Australia … he’s scored runs against us in the past and he scored more runs than I did in the last game so I’m sure he’ll be fine.
“It wasn’t that long ago where he scored an 88 against South Africa, which was an outstanding innings and put Australia on the front foot.”
Facing Martin on a Hobart pitch expected to favour the seamers early would be a big test for Hughes, who has struggled outside off-stump.
Martin’s angle caused the left-hander’s problems in Brisbane but Taylor was coy about who would open the bowling.
“We’ve got three new-ball bowlers in the side so we’ll just have to wait and see,” the skipper said.
“He was probably the most consistent bowler out of the team.”
Speculation is rife the Bellerive wicket will be a green-top, but Taylor said he was yet to examine it.
He said it had tended to play low on days three and four in Sheffield Shield matches.
“I’ve only seen the edges of it, the hession’s been on the whole time but the little bits that we do see, it seems very green,” Taylor said.
“When it’s your third Test (as captain) you don’t want to be lifting up the covers. Maybe when I’ve played 50 I might.”
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