Determined Hughes hoping to gain from Sachin

Australian opening batsman Philip Hughes is looking to "Little Master" Sachin Tendulkar to help him fight his way back into the Test side.

Determined Hughes hoping to gain from Sachin

Australian opening batsman Philip Hughes is looking to "Little Master" Sachin Tendulkar to help him fight his way back into the Test side.

The 20-year old left-hander was axed from the Australian Test team during the recent Ashes after managing only 57 runs in three innings because of a pronounced technical shortcoming against the short ball.

Hughes is spending a week in India under the watchful eye of Neil D'Costa, his Nagpur-based, Indian-born high performance coach, in a determined bid to regain his place in the Test side for the first Test against the West Indies in Brisbane starting on November 26.

The diminutive New South Wales opener is hoping to have an invaluable session with Tendulkar this weekend to overcome his technical deficiency against the rising delivery, which the England bowlers, particularly Andrew Flintoff exploited fully.

"That's why I've been training hard for the past couple of months in England and now in India.

"Shane Watson did a marvellous job (opening) and he was beautiful to watch. He's also made it tough for me now to get back in," Hughes told The Telegraph newspaper.

Hughes burst on the Test scene with two centuries and an average of 69.17 against South Africa during the last series between the then two leading teams on the ICC table and was immediately hailed as a genius.

On his return home on Wednesday, Ricky Ponting said: "I think we all saw his deficiency in a certain area and the English bowlers targeted that and did it exceptionally well.

"He put himself under pressure and therefore put the team under pressure at certain times. He trained exceptionally hard that last half of the tour and there's no doubt in the future he's someone who will play a lot of Tests for Australia. He's got too much talent and ability not to do that."