Phillip Hughes to use Hampshire as Ashes platform
Opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Phillip-Hughes-c2185 will be hoping he can use a stint with Hampshire in the County Championship to make a case for his inclusion in Australia’s Ashes squad at the end of the year.
The 22-year-old, who has just completed three months rehabilitation after undergoing surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder during May, has signed on to play for the county club for the last month of the season.
“I’m 100% fit again and the opportunity with Hampshire is going to give me some much needed match fitness in preparation for the 2010-11 Australian summer,” Hughes said.
The left-hander will join Hampshire at the end of the month as a replacement for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lancashire-c806 in the match beginning on August 31st.
Hughes, who has so far played seven Tests for Australia, will have his work cut out for him to break back into the Australia XI, with Simon Katich and Shane Watson having developed into a solid opening partnership over the past 12 months.
Initially drafted into the Australia Test team at the tender age of 20 to replace the retired Matthew Hayden for Australia’s tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 in early 2009, Hughes did not take long to repay the selectors’ faith. After his dismissal for a duck in the first innings in Johannesburg, the youngster made 75 in the second and when the series moved to Durban Hughes amassed scores of 115 and 160 to earn man-of-the-match honours.
Three centuries in four innings for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Middlesex-c817 in the County Championship followed and so did premature comparisons with the great Sir Donald Bradman, but the reality check was soon to follow.
Hughes was dropped from the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 was his replacement, and a move that was perhaps viewed as a temporary fix at the time now has the feel of a more permanent arrangement about it.
Hughes’ two Tests since, against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wellington-c864 could ensure his place in the XI was safe when Watson was declared fit for the second Test in Hamilton.
The unorthodox opener now has a chance to again use English domestic cricket to put himself in the frame for Australian selection.
But with county scores failing to stack up in the Ashes once before, even if Hughes fires for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hampshire-c789, it’s hard to see him playing a larger role than first reserve opener to Watson and Katich when the competition for the coveted urn begins anew later this year.
Tags: