Wellington, March 25: Captain Ricky Ponting was highly impressed with Philip Hughes’ well-timed knocks in the recent past, and is hoping that the young Test opener could be Australia’s version of Indian hard-hitter Virender Sehwag.
Hughes scored an unbeaten 86 off just 75 balls to power Australia to an emphatic 10-wicket against the Black Caps in the first Test, and Ponting said he couldn’t believe what he saw yesterday.
”He (Hughes) can take a lot out of that,” Ponting told mediaperons here after their massive win. ”Even in the first innings, to come back and play the way he did, he would have been disappointed to get out after getting a start. But every opportunity and every bit of exposure he gets is going to be good for him in the long run.” ”It is an advantage, we’ve played against other teams around the world that have players who play the same, someone like Sehwag is a fairly similar Test match opener to what Hughes is,” he said.
”Being that sort of player you will have your ups and downs, but when you are up you win games and you give your side a good chance to win games,” he said, pointing out the similarities between Sehwag and Hughes.
Hughes, who was slaughtered in the last Ashes series rebounded in the later half of the Australian summer with some scintillating domestic performances that saw him included in the squad for New Zealand.
However, Ponting believes that the young opener, who was dropped on 48, still has a few things to work on.
”He knows he has got work to do on a few little technique things,” he said.
”He’ll continue to work hard on that and down the track he’ll be a good player for Australia.” However, Hughes’ chances of playing in the second Test in Hamilton looks slim with Shane Watson having strong work-outs in practise session and is also all set to prove his fitness.
But Australian senior batsman Michael Hussey believes that Hughes would not be fazed by making way for Watson.
He said the Australian side was also confident that the 23-year-old would become a full-time member of the national Test side in the coming times.
”He’s a great young guy,” Hussey said. ”I think he just loves being around the group at the moment. He is so young, there’s so much time for him. All you can say is keep churning out the runs for New South Wales and when he gets his chance to play for Australia, keep showing everyone that he is good enough. ”I’m sure his opportunity is going to come up, where he’ll make that position his own at some stage,” he added.
——–Agencies