SYDNEY: Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes was battling to regain his place on the national Test side when he was felled by a bouncer at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
His mother and sister were in the stands watching. Two days later on Thursday, the 25-year-old died from his injuries in a Sydney hospital, surrounded by family and friends. He was due to celebrate his 26th birthday on Sunday.
The popular young batsman played 26 Tests for his country but never secured a regular place in the national team despite some 9,000 first-class runs.
Hughes made his Test debut in South Africa in 2009 as a 20-year-old, where he top scored for Australia in the second innings at Johannesburg with 75 runs. The left-hander followed up in the second Test at Durban with centuries in both innings, amassing some 275 runs at the crease.
That made Hughes the youngest batsman to score twin centuries in a Test and his success sparked comparisons to Australian batting great Don Bradman.
But the runs did not always come as easily later on as bowlers probed his unorthodox technique, and Hughes never cemented his place in the Test team. He last played at Test level in July 2013 at Lord's where he scored a total of two runs in two innings.
Hughes' strong form for Australia A and South Australia earlier this year saw him included in the Test squad to face Pakistan although he wasn't required to play, and he admitted it had been hard being in and out of the Test side.
"But I understand that when I was in there, I wasn't consistent enough. Going forward it's about consistency and looking to score as many runs as possible," he said in September.
"That is something that I have been working on and I'm probably doing it better over the last 12 months than the previous years."
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