Sydney, May 23 (ANI): Australian opener, who returned after his century-laden stint with Middlesex, has said he knows the secrets behind taking down England captain Andrew Strauss.

Strauss, the Middlesex skipper who spent hours at the crease with Hughes, found weaknesses to exploit, but forgot to tell the county bowlers. Hughes destroyed them.

Much has been made of Strauss probing the technique of world cricket’s latest phenomenon from the other end of the wicket.

Hughes laughs at everyone having ignored the flipside to that story. He was watching Strauss every bit as intently as England’s skipper was probing him, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

“I’ll be talking to the boys about a few things that happened over there. The second championship game we played, I got to meet him (Strauss) a couple of days before the game, and then we got to bat together for nearly a whole day.

We spent a fair bit of time together,” Huges said.

“Obviously, he’s seen a fair bit of me, and there’s no dramas there. It’s kind of funny how people can see that in a bad way. I just wanted to get a lot of runs for Middlesex, and I’m glad I did. Why isn’t that a good thing?

“We got on great, the two of us. There were no Ashes comments or anything like that, we were just a couple of blokes playing for Middlesex.

Thing is, though, and no one has even mentioned it, I batted with him for so long, I got the chance to look at him, too,” he added.

Hughes is a marked man, with former England opener Geoffrey Boycott fearing that he could win Australia a Test – in a session.

South Africa unsuccessfully sledged him during his debut series – back-to-back centuries made them calm down a bit and he expects another verbal onslaught in England.

Hughes assured Ponting on Friday that he had only just begun. He’s played at three Ashes venues. He is oblivious to the mystique surrounding the England skipper because they’ve been sharing a dressing room. (ANI)