Farmer's son hits the big time

The whispers began three years ago. A banana farmer's son had arrived in the big smoke and was punishing bowling attacks across Sydney grade cricket. "I'll tell you this," said his coach, Neil d'Costa, who had just chaperoned Michael Clarke to cricket's grandest stage. "This kid will go all the way."

The prophecy unfolded rapidly. Runs for Western Suburbs. Runs for the New South Wales and Australia Under-19s. Runs for New South Wales and Australia A. And all this by the age of 20. Hughes was not so much a batsman as a cricketing tsunami, swamping competitions with torrents of runs and earning the reputation as Australia's next big thing.

Hughes is an intriguing subject on both sides of the boundary rope. Away from the game, he is a quietly-spoken country kid who, paradoxically, has developed a taste for high fashion, suave hairstyles and diamond earrings. On the pitch, he is a positive-scoring, free-flowing batsman, albeit with a technique that is not to everyone's taste.

But it is runs that define him as a cricketer, and runs that caught the eye of Andrew Hilditch's selection panel. With 1570 to his name in 17 first-class games at an average of 60.38, Hughes has given Australia every reason to believe his is not a premature selection.

"Watching [South Africa] on TV in Australia, they all seemed pretty good," Hughes said. "I'd love to have a crack at all of them."

Hughes' elevation to the Test squad was not entirely surprising - his 117 in last season's Sheffield Shield final prompted a wave of media calls for his promotion - but it certainly sparked excitement across the Australian cricketing landscape. Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, was equally impressed with Hughes' 151 and 82 not out in Newcastle over the past week, when he knew the spotlight was on him.

"It's probably one of the most exciting things I've had to do since I've been a selector, picking a 20-year-old player who's scoring that volume of runs under pressure," Hilditch said. "We probably haven't done that since Ricky Ponting, so it's pretty exciting.

"He's got a fairly simple technique and certain areas where he scores, he's basically a very controlled sort of player. You probably don't want to draw comparisons but maybe similar to Justin Langer when he started his career. He just seems to have a really good head about his shoulders."

Both Ponting and Langer spoke at length with Hughes during this week's Allan Border medal presentation. Hughes was awarded the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year on the same evening Ponting was named joint winner of the Border medal, and the Australian captain was glowing in his praise for the man tasked with replacing Matthew Hayden at the top of the order.

"It's going to be a huge step up for him," Ponting said. "It's going to be a demanding tour on all the players, even us more experienced guys will find it difficult at times over there I'm sure.

"Everything that he's shown or indicated with his first-class cricket over the last couple of years would suggest that under pressure and in big moments he's tended to stand up and do the job for New South Wales. That's a great thing for him to have behind him already."

Hughes scored a breezy 64 in a tour match against New Zealand earlier in the summer, and on Thursday declared himself again ready to duel an international attack. "It's all going very smoothly at the moment and I'm loving it," he said. "I've batted a lot with Simon [Katich] for New South Wales now and he's been great. It's definitely great to bat with him and if [the opportunity] did come up [to open with him for Australia], it would be great.''