Phillip Hughes’s woes continue to mount on this his first Ashes tour.The young opener fell for 10 at the Wantage Road ground to David Wigley, part of a very much second string  Northampton county team. His likley rival Shane Watson, took the most of the opportunity with an authoritative score of 84 on the first day. Hughes’ dismissal  just continued a downward  trend for hin on the 2009 Ashes series to date.This is somewhat dissapointing considering his success in South Africa earlier in the year.

The loss of his wicket  brought the Aussie  back-up batsman Watson, to the crease and he was quickly off the mark against a Northamptonshire side missing its top five cricketers. Despite the continual interuption from the rain, Watson on his return from injury, hit 15 fours. He and Simon Katich (25) moved the score along to 48 before losing his wicket to David Willey, edging the ball to be caught behind. He is considered to be the first choice replacement if Hughes form does not improve. However, Watson is not without his critics, he opened for Queensland during the 2007-08 season and it was a disaster, scoring  just 28 in six inings.

Another outside possability for opening bat is Hussey who started his Test career as an opener and is very familiar with the position. Australia were 3-231 at close of play  on a rain-affected day one with acting skipper Mike Hussey (75no) and Marcus North (32no) unbeaten. At the moment this tour match has asked more questions than it has answered. With the weather expected to improve over the next couple of days, the Aussie selectors will hope that at the end they will be able to select their team for the next test at Edgbaston capable of restoring them to parity with the England who are 1-0 up in the series.