Hughes ready for England barrage

Phil Hughes has denied he has any problems with short-pitched bowling, saying he will not "lose any sleep" over England's plans to bounce him out during the third Ashes Test in Perth.

The 22-year-old opener has been recalled to Australia's squad to take the place of Simon Katich, who will miss the rest of the series with an Achilles injury. But doubts continue to linger over Hughes' technique after it was brutally exposed by a bouncer barrage from Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff during the last Ashes tour.

"The media have got a hold of it and gone on about the short ball," Hughes told the Herald-Sun. "I'm not worried about it. I'm not concerned about the short ball at all."

When asked his thoughts on England captain Andrew Strauss' plan to hit him with more bouncers on the fast Perth wicket, he added: "I won't lose any sleep over it.

"I've been working on my game. A lot of that stuff about me struggling against the short ball was hyped up through the Ashes, but I won't be changing a lot."

Having lost his position as Australian opener midway through the last Ashes series in England, Hughes has played just two Tests for Australia since, filling in for other injured players. He did score a power-packed 86 from just 75 balls earlier this year against New Zealand and still has a Test average of 51.25

Despite the lean scoring this summer - he has only managed 201 runs from eight first-class innings at as average of 25.12 - Hughes has received the backing of former Australian opener Matthew Hayden.

Like Hughes, Hayden was a domestic cricket run machine who took five years to establish himself in the Australia team during the 1990s. But Hayden believes Hughes has what it takes to eventually earn a permanent position in the side, a process that may start in Perth next week.

"I think there's people that comment about Phil's technique being this, that and the other thing," said Hayden. "At the end of the day it doesn't matter. He scores the runs and he scores a lot of runs.

"Within the side, he's got a great mentor in Justin Langer, whose role specifically is to develop him. There's none tougher in the business than him, so he's got some really good support and I think that's going to make a difference in Phil's career."