Hughes scored his first Test century in his second Test match for
Australia at the age of 20, opening the batting and hitting 115 in the first innings against
South Africa in
Durban. This made Hughes Australia's youngest Test centurion since
Doug Waltersin 1965. In the second innings of the same match, Hughes scored 160 as Australia won the match by 175 runs, becoming the youngest cricketer in history to score centuries in both innings of a Test match. On 11 January 2013, he became the first Australian batsman in the history of
ODI cricket to score a century on debut, a feat which he achieved against
Sri Lanka in
Melbourne.
[4] In the first Test of the
2013 Ashes, Hughes shared a world record tenth wicket partnership of 163 runs with debutant
Ashton Agar, as Australia were narrowly beaten by
England at
Trent Bridge.
[5]
Early life and junior career[edit]
Hughes was born in
Macksville, a small town on the north coast of New South Wales, to Greg, a banana farmer, and his Italian wife Virginia.
[9] Hughes was also a talented rugby league player who once played alongside Australian
rugby leagueinternational
Greg Inglis.
[3] He played his junior cricket for Macksville RSL Cricket Club, where he excelled so quickly that he was playing A-Grade at the age of 12.
[9] At the age of 17, Hughes moved from Macksville to
Sydney to play for Western Suburbs District Cricket Club in
Sydney Grade Cricket[10] while he attended
Homebush Boys High. He scored 141* on his grade debut and enjoyed a solid 2006–07 season scoring 752 runs at an average of 35.81 with a highest score of 142*.
[11] He represented Australia at the Under-19s World Cup in 2007.
[12] He was coached at Triforce Sports Cricket Centre in Mortlake.
[13]
First-class career[edit]
After scoring runs prolifically for New South Wales youth teams and Western Suburbs in
Grade Cricket, Hughes was handed a rookie contract by
New South Wales for the 2007–08 season.
[14] After scores of 51 and 137 for the New South Wales Second XI against Victoria's Second XI,
[15] Hughes was rewarded with a call up by Blues selectors to make his
first-class debut. He played his first senior game against
Tasmania on 20 November 2007 at the
Sydney Cricket Ground. At 18 years and 355 days, Hughes was the youngest New South Wales debutant since
Michael Clarke in 1999.
[16] In a comfortable victory for New South Wales, Hughes opened the batting and got his career off to a solid start, scoring a fluent 51 and taking 2 catches.
[17]
Hughes had an outstanding debut season for New South Wales, playing seven matches and scoring 559 runs at an average of 62.11 with one century and six fifties.
[18] The highlight of Hughes' excellent season came in New South Wales'
Pura Cup final victory over
Victoria. He scored 116 off 175 balls in the Blues' second innings to help put his team in a commanding position. At 19 years of age, this innings made him the youngest ever player to score a century in a Pura Cup final.
[19] Hughes was rewarded for his achievements by winning the New South Wales Rising Star Award and earning an upgrade to a full state contract for the 2008–09 season.
[20][21]
Hughes was signed by
Middlesex on a short-term contract, as cover for
Murali Kartik, for the beginning of the
2009 English cricket season.
[22][23] He was available for first six weeks of the season and played in three
County Championship matches, all eight of Middlesex's
Friends Provident Trophy group matches and the first few matches in the Panthers' defence of the
Twenty20 Cup.
[24] In most other years, a contract for the opening six weeks of the season would involve playing four to six championship matches, some but not all FPT matches and no Twenty20, but the scheduling for 2009 had to accommodate
ICC World Twenty20 and the eventually-cancelled
Stanford Super Series. Despite Hughes holding an Italian passport by virtue of his Italian mother,
Middlesex resisted signing him up as a
Kolpak player and instead signed him as a foreign player.
[25] He enjoyed strong success in England, scoring 574 runs in his three first-class matches, including three hundreds, at an average of 143.50.
[26] Of his time at Middlesex, Hughes commented:
I thoroughly enjoyed it and the preparation has been great. The big thing that came out of it was that I played at three Test grounds I'm going to be playing on and got to experience them before this big series coming up. Lord's was my home ground there for Middlesex and I played at The Oval as well and Edgbaston. It couldn't have really worked out any better. The big thing was just going over there to experience the whole different culture really, the weather, the wickets and the bowlers as well."
[27]
Hughes hit back-to-back hundreds at the end of the 2010/11 season to earn the praise of Australian chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch. In his last two first class matches for New South Wales in the 2010/11 season he scored 54, 115, 138 and 93. Australia's chairman of selectors,
Andrew Hilditch, said "I was thrilled for Phil, I think he turned the corner the last game. I spent a bit of time with him before the last Shield game and he seemed to be in a really good place. Having had a tough season, to emerge like he has is a credit to him."
[28]
List A career[edit]
Less than a week after his debut in first-class cricket, on 28 November 2007, Hughes made his
List A debut against
Victoria at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground. While he was not originally scheduled to play the match, sickness to Australian opening batsman
Phil Jaques handed him the spot.
[29] Just as he did in his first-class debut, Hughes passed 50 but was eventually dismissed for 68, top scoring for New South Wales in a "controlled" display.
[30] After New South Wales' wicket-keeper
Brad Haddin was struck in the head by a top edge, Hughes took on the keeping duties for nine overs. On 17 May 2009, Hughes made his first limited overs century, scoring 119 for Middlesex against Warwickshire. On 29 July 2014, he made a double century (202 not out from 151 balls) in a match with South Africa A in
Darwin.
[31]
Australian international career[edit]
Ducking to a short ball that, according to critics, caused him problems in England.
After consistently making runs at domestic level, Hughes was called up to replace
Matthew Hayden on Australia's tour of South Africa in February and March 2009. He was selected to make his debut in the first Test match starting on 26 February 2009 at the
New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg after making 53, then retiring, in Australia's tour match against the South African Board President's XI. He was dismissed for a duck in his first Test innings by
Dale Steyn off just the fourth ball of the match, however he went on to top-score with 75 in the second innings, including 11 fours and a six.
[32]
Hughes hit his maiden Test hundred in the first innings of the
second Test at the Sahara Stadium,
Kingsmead, Durban on 6 March 2009, before adding another hundred in the second Innings. In doing so, at the age of 20 years and 96 days, he became both the youngest Australian since
Doug Walters to score a Test century
[33] and the youngest player from any country to score a century in both innings of a Test match.
[34]
During the 2009 Ashes campaign, Hughes' unorthodox technique was exploited by fast bowlers, who targeted his upper body and avoided bowling wide outside off stump, restricting his opportunities to play shots through the offside, most notably the cut shot. He was dropped from the team for the third Edgbaston Test in favour of Shane Watson, who opened the batting in his place and provided the Australians with an extra bowling option.[35][36]
Hughes was a fringe player for the next year or so, playing some Tests to cover other injured batsmen. He played two home Tests against Pakistan in this capacity, covering the injured Ricky Ponting in the Boxing Day Test, then Simon Katich in the New Year's Test. He was then called up to the Test squad for the tour of New Zealand in March 2010 to replace Shane Watson in the first Test; he scored a rapid 86 from 75 balls in a small fourth-innings run chase in this Test.
Hughes was dropped from the 2010–2011 Ashes squad, but was called up for the Third Test as a replacement for the injured Simon Katich. He was a regular in the Australian team for the following year, playing in the last three Ashes tests, tours of Sri Lanka and South Africa and then a home series against New Zealand, but his spot came under pressure due to his inconsistency during that time. He scored two big scores (126 in
Colombo and 88 in
Johannesburg), but his next-highest score was only 36,
[37] and he consistently fell to catches at slip and gully. He was heavily criticised for his performance in the two-Test series against New Zealand, in which he managed only 41 runs at 10.25, and was dismissed exactly the same way in all four innings: caught at slip by
Martin Guptill from the bowling of
Chris Martin.
[38] He was dropped from the Australian team following the series.
[39]
In a stint to Worcestershire for the English County Cricket competition, Hughes made adjustments to his much maligned technique resulting in a more expansive range of strokes with more emphasis on legside play. Upon return to Australia, Hughes left his home state of New South Wales, moving to South Australia. This resulted in a strong return of runs in first class cricket in the
Sheffield Shield and one day cricket in the
Ryobi Cup. These returns earned Hughes a recall to the Australian Test team to face Sri Lanka in Hobart following the retirement of
Ricky Ponting in December 2012. He made an impressive first inning 86 batting at number 3.
[40]
After almost a year away from the Test arena, Hughes found himself back in the Test side for the series against Sri Lanka in lieu of the retiring Ricky Ponting, occupying the number 3 position over Watson. Immediately he made an impact, scoring a solid 86 in the first Test match at Hobart, with a new-found confidence and tighter technique that had eluded him 12 months prior. He made two half centuries during his comeback scoring 233 runs at 46.60 in what was the most successful stint at the number 3 spot that the Australians had seen for some time. Hughes was set to receive a $1 million contract with Cricket Australia and be selected in Australia's ODI and T20 international squads in the wake of Michael Hussey's shock international retirement at the end of the 2012/13 Australia summer.
[41] The selection of Hughes in the Australian ODI squad was confirmed on 6 January 2013. National selection boss John Inverarity noted that players such as Hughes were included with an eye to the 2015 World Cup, suggesting that he was viewed as a long-term player for Australia in all three forms of the game.
[42]
Hughes made his mark with a solid 112 (from 129 balls) in his ODI debut, becoming the first Australian to reach a century on debut.
[43] He opened the innings with
Aaron Finch at
Melbourne, and added an 140-run 3rd wicket partnership with
captain George Bailey, before being dismissed by
Lasith Malinga. Since, Hughes made his 2nd ODI match – winning century with 138 (n.o) off just 154 balls in the fifth and final ODI.
Following a successful summer season in Australia in 2012/2013, Hughes was selected to play in India. He struggled in the series, scoring 147 runs in 8 innings and averaging 18.37.
The match was immediately abandoned, and early the next day
Cricket Australia announced that the other two Shield games that were being played elsewhere in Australia would also be abandoned, stating "Given how players across the country are feeling right now, it's just not the day to be playing cricket."
[47]
Hughes died two days later from his injuries, three days before his 26th birthday.
[48][49][50] Australian cricket captain
Michael Clarke read a statement on behalf of Hughes' family.
[51] The Prime Minister of Australia,
Tony Abbott, said "For a young life to be cut short playing our national game seems a shocking aberration. He was loved, admired and respected by his team-mates and by legions of cricket fans."
[49][52]
Play on the second day of the third Test between
Pakistan and New Zealand in the United Arab Emirates was suspended, with the match extended by an extra day.
[53] The tour match between the Cricket Australia XI and the India team was also cancelled in light of Hughes' death.
[54] The second ODI between
Sri Lanka and England, scheduled to be played on 29 November, will go ahead as a tribute to Hughes.
[55] People from all over the world posted photos of their bats on social media to pay tribute to Hughes.
[56] Cricket Australia will conduct an investigation into the safety of players following Hughes' death.
[57]
Clarke also confirmed that
Cricket Australia had agreed to
retire Phillip Hughes' One-Day International shirt number, 64, in remembrance of him.
[58]
Personal life[edit]
Hughes had a passion for fashion and breeding chickens, which (along with cattle breeding) he planned to return to following his cricket career.
[59] He once said, “Every time I get a break in cricket I like to get home and help Dad on the farm. There’s nothing better than to get back to the country.”
[60] A year before his death, he bought a 90 hectares (220 acres) property in Macksville, with 70
Angus cattle on the property.
[61]
International centuries[edit]
- Test centuries
- One Day International centuries
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Melbourne, Australia
