Meeting Tendulkar made me mentally stronger: Hughes

New Delhi:

Young Australian opener Philip Hughes describes the meeting with his idol Sachin Tendulkar as a "dream come true" and said the encounter with the champion batsman helped him immensely to become mentally strong.

Just after his unceremonious axing from Australia's Ashes squad, Hughes met Tendulkar at hotel in Mumbai last month.

"I met Sachin (Tendulkar) a month or six week weeks ago. It was a dream come true moment for me. It was a generous gesture on his part to spare couple of hours for me from his busy schedule. It was a great experience," said Hughes, who is here to play in the Champions League T20 for New South Wales.

"We didn't talk anything on technical aspects. It was more of a general conversation and centered on the mental aspects of the game.

"He is a legend and is there for 20 long years, so I asked him a few questions about his young days, his approach towards the game, his training methods. The meeting helped me a lot to become mentally strong. The interaction was two way, he also asked me few questions," he said.

Asked how the meeting with the master blaster materialised, Hughes said it was actually his personal coach, Neil D'Costa who helped him out in his endeavour.

"Just a week after the Ashes I went to Nagpur for a week to meet my coach Neil D'Costa, who was coaching at a private clinic there. It just happened that I asked him if he can help me in meeting Sachin and he said he will look into it", he said.

"The next moment I was in Mumbai one-on-one with Sachin, We met over lunch and coffee and spent about an hour or so together," Hughes said.

Hughes played the first two Tests for Australia in this year's Ashes series in England which Ricky Ponting's men lost 1-2, but was later dropped from the third Test and the young left-hander prematurely revealed the news of his axing in social networking site Twitter.

His move, however, didn't go well with Cricket Australia who reprimanded him for his step. But inspite of the caution, Hughes said he will continue tweeting as it is his way of expression.

"I'm still tweeting and I will continue to do so. Everyone is different and everyone has his or her way of expressing emotions," he said.

The 20-year-old NSW player said his first priority is to earn his place back in the Australian team but didn't rule out the possibility of playing in the lucrative Indian Premier League if any offer comes by his way.

"It was really disappointing to get dropped after the second Test but now I want to play well for New South Wales and get back in the Australian team," Hughes said.

"IPL is really great if any offer comes around the corner one day, I will surely play in the tournament," he added.