Hughes dropped in England to stop long-term damage

Ricky Ponting called Phillip Hughes' demotion during the Ashes series "one of the toughest" decisions but believed it was done to protect the young opener. Hughes, 20, was left out of the third game in England and replaced by Shane Watson after being peppered by short balls from Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff during the first half of the tour.

Ponting wrote in his 2009 Captain's Diary there was no choice but to end Hughes' five-match run in the team to help him in the long term. "It was the selectors who finally made the decision, but I was okay with it," Ponting said. "I've heard suggestions that we've done Phillip's confidence a lot of damage by dropping him, but we could also argue that if we stuck with him, for Flintoff to keep pounding him, doing that would cause a lot more harm."

The selectors want Hughes back in the Test team as soon as he is in form but he has had a quiet start to the summer following his success in the Champions League Twenty20 win. He missed out again on the opening day of the Sheffield Shield game against Tasmania, making 12 before being bowled by Luke Butterworth. The score followed his 32 in the Blues' first four-day game of the year and 72 and 30 in the FR Cup.

"I'm feeling good at the crease at the moment, even though it's been frustrating getting starts and not going on with it," Hughes told the Daily Telegraph in the lead-up to Tuesday's game. "I'm hopeful a big one is just around the corner."

Ponting remains convinced Hughes will succeed at the top level. "I've got no doubt he will make a lot more runs in Test cricket," he wrote. "He's got to listen to the right people and focus on getting his game back to the level that excited us all so much. I'm sure he will be back sooner rather than later." Ponting would like Watson to gain a spot in the middle order to allow Hughes back into the side as an opener.