JUSTIN Langer has long believed cricket is played as much between the ears as on the field.
So when emerging opener Phillip Hughes flew to Perth for a one-on-one session with the old hardhead of Australian cricket, Langer spent as much time exploring how he approaches the game mentally and emotionally as he did honing the young man’s batting technique.
“Justin has been great for me,” Hughes said this week. “He looked at a few little things with my batting that I won’t go into, but the main thing was what we spoke about away from cricket.
“The biggest thing for me was listening to Justin’s passion for everything – not just cricket, but for life.
“I asked him plenty of questions, but he asked me just as many.”
While Langer had Hughes in the nets three times a day, they spoke for hours about the mental side of the game – the importance of a “steel trap mind” so that scattered thoughts and negative attitudes do not affect Hughes’ cricket.
It is the same approach Langer developed after being dropped from the Test side before returning to form one of Australia’s greatest opening partnerships with fellow left-hander Matthew Hayden.
Hughes, 21, made the quick trip across the country before leaving for a stint with Hampshire in England.
He said he wanted to make an immediate impact after recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in May.
“Since the shoulder injury I’ve been really keen to knuckle down and do as much training as possible, which is why I decided to spend some time with Justin,” Hughes said.
“I have one eye on the Ashes, but at the end of the day I can only control what I can control and it all comes back to scoring runs.”
Hughes has shown enough in his first seven Tests to suggest he is a player of great natural flair and potential and Langer is regarded as the man who can put the finishing touches to his game.
Hughes averages an impressive 51.25 in Test cricket and a strong stint overseas and a good start to the 2010-2011 Australian season could see him back as a Test opener alongside NSW teammate Simon Katich.
It would probably come at the expense of Langer’s fellow West Australian, Marcus North, should North struggle for runs during the Test series in India in October.
Hughes will join Australia’s contracted players for a training camp in Queensland this week on his way to England.
He has challenged himself to average “about 70 to 75” for New South Wales in the coming summer.