Thaindian News

Melbourne, Dec 10 (ANI): Australia’s batting coach Justin Langer has backed opener Phillip Hughes to perform in the third Test, and said England will be made to pay for taunting the under-pressure opener.

Hughes was named as a replacement for the injured Simon Katich in the Australian squad in the must-win game starting at the WACA Ground from next Thursday.

England captain Andrew Strauss had said after the victory in Adelaide that the 22-year-old still had “weaknesses that we can exploit”.

Langer said: “I will back him over any other player in Australian cricket. You see something in someone every now and then, and more than anything I hope he takes this opportunity next week. I hope England keep taunting him, he is that sort of player.”

“When he was playing to make his Test debut he was up against two established players, Chris Rogers and Phil Jaques, for a place and what did he do? He scored [151 and 82 not out for NSW against Tasmania]. When the pressure is on and he absolutely has to score runs, he does. He is a little fighter,” The Age quoted Langer, as saying.

Hughes was dropped from the Test side during last year’s Ashes series because England bowlers had successfully exposed his discomfort to short-balls into his body, which restricted his ability to play his favourite cut shot.

Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff and Stuart Broad hardly gave the left-hander wider deliveries but this time around none of those three will be playing for England.

“It’s fine for them to say they have these plans for [Hughes] but they’ve still got to execute them,” Langer said. (ANI)