Remembering Phillip Hughes – A talented cricketer taken away by tragic circumstances

November 27 is considered as an unfortunate day for cricket as six years back, on the same day, the cricket fraternity lost one of its promising budding talents Phillip Hughes. No one even in their wildest imaginations would have dreamt of something like that in a cricket field. Touted as the next big thing in the Australian cricket, Phil Hughes’ journey was cut short in a Sheffield Shield game at Sydney. The former cricketer will always remain 63 not out in the hearts of cricket enthusiasts.

On Phil’s sixth death anniversary, let’s take a look at his sweet yet tragic journey in the cricket fraternity as a batsman. Born on November 30, 1988, in Macksville, a small town in Nambucca Shire, New South Wales, Hughes had some tremendous highs and lows in his short career. Rugby was Phil’s first love but he was destined to choose cricket over it. He started his journey as a professional cricketer at the age of 17. He made his first-class debut for New South Wales.

Cricket career

Hughes played as many as 114 first-class games aggregating 9023 runs at an average of 46.5. The figures included 26 hundreds and 46 fifties, with unbeaten 243 being his highest first-class score for Australia A. Since his List A debut for NSW against Victoria in November 2007, Phil featured in 90 games collecting 3607 runs at an average of 47.5. He had also registered his name as the first Australian to score a double hundred in a List A game. Hughes was awarded the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year Award in 2009.

Phil was drafted into the National Test team for the South Africa series. Playing in Johannesburg on February 26, 2009, Hughes scored a duck on his debut but redeemed himself in the second innings by smashing 75 runs. This was followed by him scoring two consecutive centuries in the next game at Durban. However, his career saw a dip after that he failed to live up to the expectations but soon made a comeback in the team. His 3rd and last Test ton came against Sri Lanka at Colombo, where he made 126 in a drawn game. Phil’s Test figures read 1535 runs in 26 Test matches at an average of 32.6.

63 not out, today and always.

Remembering Phil Hughes ♥️ pic.twitter.com/syupDqt9rh

— ICC (@ICC) November 27, 2020

The left-hander had announced his arrival in One Day International with a bang as he smashed a scintillating 112 while playing his debut ODI against Sri Lanka in 2013 at the MCG. He scored 826 ODI runs in 25 games at 35.91, and hit 2 centuries, the second of which came against Sri Lanka as well. As far as T20Is are concerned, he played just 1 game scoring 6 runs.

Hughes was headed for great things, but in a cruel twist of fate, was hit by a bouncer near his left ear while playing for NSW in Sheffield Shield on November 25, 2014. He was unbeaten on 63 when he collapsed on the bouncer by Sean Abbott and that is the last of Phil Hughes that the cricket field will ever see.