Australia’s rookie Test opening batsman Phil Hughes says he will give as good as he gets if he is sledged by England in next month’s Ashes series.
The adventurous 20-year-old left-hander has become a marked man ahead of the five-Test series following his four hundreds in a four-week playing stint for English county Middlesex last month.
Hughes left for England on Monday to prepare for the July 8 opening Test of the series in Cardiff well versed for what might come his way.
The youngster was sledged by the South Africans in his first Test series earlier this year and made it clear he wouldn’t back down if the English did likewise.
”I’m happy with that, I don’t mind that sledging, I’m sure I will say a bit back,” Hughes told reporters.
”The big thing is ‘what’s on the field stays on the field’ and we love to play it hard and fair and I know I do.”
Hughes said he had been working on aspects of his game following a brief break after his English county stint.
”The ball does swing very late and the wickets are a lot slower so that was a couple of things I really picked up and a few things I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks just to keep my game intact for this series ahead,” Hughes said.
”I won’t change my technique but the ball is swinging very late and the wickets have been slower. So there’s been a few things — but I won’t bring it out and say what — but there’s a couple of things that I’ve worked on.”
Hughes became the youngest player in Test history to get two centuries in a match when he scored 115 and 160 against South Africa in Durban in March.
NSW teammate Stuart Clark also left on Monday to join the four other members of the Australian pace attack, who are already part of the unsuccessful Twenty20 World Cup campaign in England.
”I’m not sure they [the Australian selectors] will go down the path of blokes rewarded for wickets,” Clark told reporters.
”It will be about displaying certain qualities of your bowling style which is going to be important come the Test matches.
”If I bowl well and I don’t get any wickets, that probably won’t rule me out.”
Elbow problems prevented swing bowler Clark from playing in the two-Test series against South Africa and he hasn’t played a Test since last November against New Zealand.
But he proved his fitness and readiness for the Ashes by playing in Sydney club cricket and two one-day internationals against Pakistan in late April and early May. — AFP
