Khawaja and Hughes both have a long way to go before they will be reconsidered for selection

Australia national selector John Inverarity has called on Phil Hughes and Usman Khawaja to take one or two tips from Ricky Ponting’s book in order to regain their spot on the national squad.

Rod Marsh, a former Australian wicketkeeper and currently a national selector as well, was at Ponting’s last game for Tasmania, and told Inverarity that he was extremely impressed at the versatility and agility Ponting still had left in him at the age of 37.

Inverarity believes it is these types of traits that will help both Khawaja and Hughes claim back their spots on the Australian roster.

“Rod Marsh and I were watching in Adelaide and Rod said ‘just look at him’, of course he was pointing to Ricky Ponting, he was running around and throwing left hand and right hand. Khawaja and Hughes need to learn that,” Inverarity said.

Hughes and Khawaja were both dropped from the Test squad after Australia’s humiliating loss to New Zealand at Hobart last year, and in an attempt to get their careers back on track, both left-handed batsmen have played county cricket in England and have also joined new domestic teams in Australia, with Hughes going to South Australia and Khawaja to Queensland.

However, even though both batsmen have been scoring a lot of runs as of late, Inverarity noted that this was not the only thing the selection panel were interested in, and added that running between the wickets was a key part of a batsman’s repertoire as well.

Besides having the ability to dispatch loose deliveries to the boundary, Inverarity is looking for Khawaja to have the habit of rotating the strike as often as possible.

“What we’ll have to see from Usman is dynamism in the field and his running between the wickets, demonstrating that energy and vitality, you take Michael Hussey and Ricky Ponting, when they’re at the non-striker’s end they present themselves every ball to the batsman. They’re there and they’re down the wicket and their level of alertness [is high]. I think Usman needs to learn that. If you’re batting, you can be enhanced by the presence of the player at the other end, it’s a team. A lot of players would all say batting with Hussey and Ponting, they would enhance their batting, they’re just terrific. Usman’s got to give in that sense too. He’s a beautiful timer of the ball, but there’s body language and presence as well,” Inverarity said.

Even though Hughes has improved drastically from last year, Inverarity believes the selection panel should hold off on selecting him until they are certain that he can play a calm and composed innings, unlike during the 2010-2011 Ashes series, where Hughes opened the batting having not scored a lot of runs as of late.

“My personal view was that we wouldn’t rush him back until he was in a good groove and playing well, he played very well in Brisbane, and when South Australia played Tasmania in the one-dayer there was a period of about 20 minutes where he hit two spanking straight drives slightly to the offside, then he pulled two balls. He wasn’t doing that before, but they were two terrific shots, and one off his toes for three or four. They were different areas to where he was scoring before. There are signs there that he’s moving to the next level, and we’d like to see that consolidated. We’re counting on him coming through. He has a lot of centuries for a 23-year-old. If he’s almost ready and he’s still getting his game sorted, to bring him back to me is the wrong decision. His platform needs to be solid and he knows where he’s at. That’s in his long-term interests and Australia’s,” Inverarity said.

Cricket Australia’s team performance manager Pat Howard revealed that his department had conducted an experiment, where they saw how players responded after being dropped from the national squad early into their international career.

“We’ve gone and done a study of the last 50 or so years, and the reality is pretty much everybody’s got dropped. And it’s part of their journey, there’s been a couple of blokes who’ve been in, seen what it’s like, stretched a little bit, come back. Nobody’s written off,” Howard said.