How is Phil doing?

In the two one-day matches he has played for Middlesex, little Phillip has scored a total of 18 runs. 7 in one, and 11 in the other, falling to Andre Nel. Aside from the fact that this proves my theory that England have hired the services of Gunther to kill Phil before the Ashes, there are a few people beginning to call his limited over skills "mediocre".

Clearly they've never seen him play anything but Test matches before.

To get to where he is, Phil has played a number of one-day matches for NSW, 21 in fact. He averages close to 40 in these, and while he hasn't scored a century which is understandable, he has converted about a quarter of his total chances into half centuries or more. When I spent a few months down in Melbourne a few years ago, I once watched him, at the age of 18, hit 68 in a match in which the Bushrangers crushed the Blues. That same match, he volunteered to be wicketkeeper for about 10 overs after Haddin was hurt, and he did a good job. That also happened to be his debut one-day match. After an excruciatingly long losing streak by the Blues, even the loss that day wasn't quite so bad because it was clear Phil Hughes would one day grow up to be able to do anything.

In any case, he's suited to the longer form of the game. We all know that, it's what he's been primed for in the last few years. And that's where he continues to succeed immeasurably. As for his one-day career, it's still fairly short as of yet and there's a good many years left in Phil to succeed even in that format of the game.

So he's not worried. I am, but only because Gunther's coming to get him, and that's an entirely separate matter altogether.

"Worried? Nah. I'm going to kick ass."