It's interesting to see Hughes' FC stats continue to plummet. Do people think it's a result of his technique being 'found out' at test level and now other bowlers have caught on, or more to do with him being forced to make significant changes to his natural game, instilling doubt in him and affecting his confidence etc. I remember at one point there he was averaging over 60 in FC cricket, and now it's 44.8. That's a massive drop...
I think there's quite a few reasons for Hughes' stat drop and I think they also explain Khawaja's general decline as well.
1. Pitches. When Hughes came onto the scene domestic pitches were still pretty flat. The first season he played saw a number of Batsmen make significant runs. Since then few batsmen have actually matched this and even fewer(if any) have actually backed it up over several seasons.
2. Bowling Attacks. When Hughes came onto the scene a lot of the state bowling attacks were going through generation changes. Guys like Bichel, Kasper, Bracken, Innes etc were all retiring leaving some quite inexperienced bowling line ups.(the likes of Cutting, Feldman, McDermott, Starc, Haze, Cummins, Bird, Pattinson, NCN etc weren't even on the radar then)
3. Strong Team. The NSW(and even Australian team) team that Hughes came into generally featured the likes of Katich, Jaques and Watson. Katich and Watson had yet to regain their Australian places at this time. This allowed both to play with relative freedom knowing that the hopes of the NSW batting line up were not on their shoulders. When he was promoted to the Australian team the likes of Ponting, Hussey etc were yet to truly hit their decline as well.
4. Confidence. After both were dropped from Australia I felt that both players were alot more tentative when batting then beforehand. Both are generally aggressive batsmen but since then they've been generally playing more defensive and often getting out in the process.
5. Technical. After being dropped I feel that both players have been revising or at least thinking about their techniques. This partly plays into the whole confidence as well. You can also never count out the potential influence of Langer as well.
6. Getting Worked Out. It's no secret that Hughes loves the cover drive etc and was largely fed by South Africa's bowlers during his two centuries. After being "exposed" at international level domestic bowlers have taken note as well. He seems to be overcoming this though by introducing the Pull and Hook shots. Personally I think if he can keep playing them well he'll be back with a vengeance.