Hughes was again out in a similar fashion each time, fending chest-high deliveries to the slips and gully, but Harmison urged England's bowling attack not to underestimate the talented newcomer.

"There's a lot been made of Phillip Hughes' dismissals in the last two innings, but that doesn't count for anything," said Harmison, who had match figures of six for 116 from 37 overs at stumps on day three.

"He's got an idea of where people are going to bowl at him ... but he's got four or five days to put things right. I'm sure he'll come back strong."

The 30-year-old express bowler also warned his England colleagues to avoid bowling too short too often at Hughes. "There's a difference between me bowling short balls and other people bowling short balls because the lengths do vary," he cautioned.

North was the only one of Australia's top seven without both a half-century in the drawn tour opener against Sussex at Hove last week and the first innings of this match.

But a watchful innings in tandem with Michael Clarke - the pair put on 170 for the fourth-wicket to see the Australians to 276 for four by stumps - erased any lingering doubts about his Test place following three successive failures.

North, who turns 30 later this month, has just two Test matches to his name but has plenty of first-class experience with Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield and five different counties in England.

"I felt that it was only going to be a matter of time before my hard work off the field translated into the game," he said.