MELBOURNE, March 12: The Australians may have been dismal so far in the ongoing Test series against India but former batsman Justin Langer feels the selectors should keep faith in the players and avoid a ‘chopping and changing’ policy.

Langer urged the selectors to retain struggling batsman Phil Hughes, who has been unimpressive despite being in form at the time of selection.

“I would be so disappointed if he didn’t play the next Test. He has been brilliant again all summer,” Langer told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday pointing to Hughes’ 233 runs at 46 against Sri Lanka, 673 Sheffield Shield runs at 56 for South Australia and 416 one-day runs at 52.

“He is our most exciting and best performed young player and I hope they stick with him. Phil is a young kid who is playing Test cricket in India for the first time and you can’t just keep chopping and changing all the time,” he added.

Langer said it was worrying to see players getting a break in the national side despite being relatively raw in the domestic circuit.

“I remember English friends saying Australia had a youth policy but Ricky Ponting had scored over 10 hundreds and was rewarded for being the best player in Australia when selected,” Langer said.

“Phil Hughes was the same when selected. We have to reward people for performing, not just because they are young or seem to have to talent.

“If we do that I think it has been a system that has kept us one of the great cricketing nations for a long time. I think we have just got a little bit away from that at the moment,” he explained.

“If we keep rewarding performance not reputation then that will take us a long way forward to being the best the team in the world again,” Langer concluded.—Agencies