Phil Hughes needs time in the middle leading into the Ashes after a dismal Champions Trophy campaign.
The struggling batsman made two ducks and a total of 57 runs from his five one-day innings in the UK, getting himself into a nasty mess during all three of his dismissals at the ICC tournament.
It’s hardly a comforting preparation for a player carrying some serious Ashes baggage and who will have England’s skilful swing bowler Jimmy Anderson zeroing in on his outside edge.
The left-hander averages just 17 in nine innings against England, with a highest score of 36.
Hughes, along with fellow Ashes squad member Matthew Wade joined up with Australia A on Tuesday for the final match of their tour against Gloucestershire in Bristol starting on Friday.
Surprisingly, another of Australia’s battling top order options, Shane Watson, stayed in London to continue training.
The Ashes touring party will officially come together on Monday in Taunton, with tour matches against Somerset and Worcestershire before the first Test on July 10 at Trent Bridge.
Hughes, 24, admits he’s still a few years away from fully maturing as a batsman after an inconsistent start to his international career.
Hughes’ record shows he needs rhythm at the crease to avoid things collapsing in his mind and has three tour matches to get that right.
“Preparation is the key – spending as much time in the middle as possible and get runs. That’s really what counts in these practice games,” said Hughes.
“The older you get the better you are I think. You speak to players in the past and they sometimes say you mature about 28, 29 years of age.
“I suppose one thing for me is I’ve still got age on my side.
“I’ve been very lucky to be around the international scene for four years and I feel like I’m in a much better space than I was four years ago.
“I feel like my game has come along and also mentally come along.”
Hughes found out in 2009 when he tweeted his dropping from the team mid-series that the hype around the Ashes can become overwhelming.
He was given a sobering reminder of the fish-bowl levels of scrutiny in Birmingham two weekends ago when he went out drinking with David Warner and other teammates at The Walkabout.
Hughes said he was accountable for his actions and pledged the team were getting through the crisis together.
“I put my hand up and say it wasn’t the right thing to do after a loss to go out and have a few beers,” he said.
“We’re all in this together and we always have been.”
Nick Richardson
Roar Guru
So why get rid of Cowan and Khawaja.
Aakash bhat
Guest
Hughes needs technique adjustment runs will come naturally after that...
Richard
Guest
Hughes needs to to be dropped.. the last thing Australian cricket needs right now is Hughes time in the middle. The same goes for Warner Watson Cowan probably Khawaja. Its time to bring in a test team based around the Queensland/Tasmania squad.
BLACKIE
Guest
Based upon your reasoning a batsman with a good technique with the right aptitude for runs will succeed at test level. That being the case that same batsman would flourish at the first class level. Then who are the batsmen with good techniques who are flourishing at first class level in Australia? The only batsmen higher up the list than Hughes (12 bats for 673 runs) are Ponting (16 bats for 911 runs),Rogers (17 bats for 742 runs) ,Cosgrove (20 bats for 784 runs) and Doolan (18 bats for 715 runs). It should be understood that Hughes scored 502 runs away from the Adelaide Oval at 62.75 average. If Hughes had 18-20 bats in the Shield he would have easily eclipsed Rogers, Cosgrove and Doolan. I do not think that Cosgrove and Doolan have partcularly good techniques. Rogers has obviously made the squad. Given that there are no batsmen with good techniques flourishing in what should be a cake walk First class competition the only conclusion you can arrive at is that they do not have the aptitude for runs. That of course includes all the other batsmen on tour save for Clarke and Rogers. Hughes has the aptitude part of the equation in spades and until someone else can step up he is the man for the job.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Hughes went back to Shield and dominated. We want our selectors to pick on form and not favouritism. They did with Hughes. I'm not too worried about India, a lot of people struggle there first time. Very foreign conditions. He's always been an ordinary white ball batsman. Whilst he scores freely with the red ball, he gets bogged down when forced to score. He tends to wait for balls in his zone, which is OK for test cricket. He has an eye like a dead fish and a hunger for big scores. I haven't written him off.
Straight Drive
Guest
@ bLACKIE How long to persevere with? His lack of technique has been found out. There's a huge gap between 1st class and test cricket. Apart from his exploits in last SA tour, the only time he looked convincing was against the Lankans in those 2 ODIs. And when Kula started to swing, he couldn't lay bat on the ball. He's had a poor run for a very long time. If he does get to play in the Ashes, he better make most of those chances else he isn't gonna get another one in a hurry.
deanB
Guest
The poor bugger has got 2 left feet and he's been sussed out at the big boys level. Talent should'nt be confused with substance. Give the guy a break before he breaks and send him back to state level ala Hayden. If he's got it, he'll be back. Voges should replace him for the Ashes.
bLACKIE
Guest
Let us look at the objective evidence on Hughes. 1.Youngest player ever to score 2 centuries in one test match eclipsing the record of the great George Headley; 2. Scored 116 in shield Final at 19 years of age 3.Only Australian player to score a century on debut in an ODI; 4.Last shield season 673 runs at 56 .08 5.Ryobi Cup 323 runs at 80.75 6.Worcestershire 2012 Division 1 County 611 runs at 35.95 7..Worcestershire 2012 List a matches 486 runs at 81.00 As to his most recent form in England he got a sound 30 against England but got bogged down against the slow bowling. He got stupidly run out for 0 by a poor call from Wade against New Zealand. Then against Si Lanka he was sent in to try and thrash the bowling from the start as they needed about 8 an over. He was not shielded from the SA bowlers at his request. Like the others he struggled in India.This was his first tour to India.He did better than Ponting did in his first tour. He is worth persevering with. .
david kenny
Roar Rookie
+1
Shire Ump
Guest
He's like a bowler that can't swing the new ball or the old ball, can't quite get it to go off the seam, bowls badly to left and right handers and gets carted by the top, middle and lower order. Despite all of that he keeps getting picked because one day years ago he got a bagfull. Could you imagine if he was that bowler he would be picked. There seems to be some sort of twisted logic in the minds of the selectors that he will come good one day and we need to be around to watch it happen no matter how long we have to wait. For me I gave up waiting when he was shielded from the SA bowlers in the recent season so that he could make a few runs against Sri Lanka and justify the selector's choice again.
Straight Drive
Guest
Hughes needs runs, Hughes needs time in the middle, Hughes needs confidence, Hughes needs selectors' unwavering faith. What he also needs is technique against spin, fast & swing bowling. If he has it then the rest will follow. Unfortunately, he lacks the technique so the runs aren't there, can't spend time in the middle and is down in confidence. Selectors faith - don't know how long it's gonna last.