Ricky Ponting has said that Phillip Hughes was all set to make big strides in international cricket, but, unfortunately, the world will now not be able to see what he was capable of as a batsman.
Ponting compared Hughes to Graeme Smith, the previous captain of the South Africa test team.
According to Ponting, Graeme Smith also did not have the technique that was ideally needed for a guy to become a good test player, but, he still achieved a lot of success because he knew making runs with his limitations. Hughes was quite similar.
In one of his articles for a newspaper yesterday, the former Australian captain wrote, “I had not much idea about Phil’s game before I played with him against South Africa 5 years back. He was a young man and I was the captain of the side. So, I had a chat with him and he impressed me straightaway. He had something about him. You had to like that bloke. He was so humble.”
“You don’t expect somebody who is just 20 and is playing his first international game to loft those ferocious South African bowlers straight down the ground, but, that’s what he was doing and with ease. It’s not that they did not try. They put their all to send him back to the hut. They even sledged a little bit. But, Phil was smiling and was regularly getting better of them. Seeing that inning from the other end was an absolute delight.”
“Those cut shots there reminded me of Adam Gilchrist. That was some batting by the kid.”
“The worst thing about this tragedy is that the Cricket World has been denied of the opportunity of seeing an immensely talented batsman going from strength to strength in test cricket.”