Remembering Phillip Hughes: His career in pictures

Phillip Hughes made his debut in the New South Wales state side as a precociously talented 18-year-old, with quick hands and a sharp eye. He had an off-side-dominated game honed at his family's Macksville home on the state's mid north coast.

Hughes had moved to Sydney at 17 and joined Western Suburbs Cricket Club, where he first met and played alongside Michael Clarke.

By 19, he was firmly entrenched in the NSW Blues side as an opening batter under the captaincy of Simon Katich. He became the youngest player to score a century in a Sheffield Shield final, making 116 in the second innings against Victoria in the 2007-08 Pura Cup final.

In February 2009, after another prolific year in domestic first-class cricket, Hughes was named the Bradman Young Player of the Year at the Allan Border Medal ceremony.

Such numbers proved impossible to ignore for Australia's selectors, who named him in the squad to tour South Africa in February and March of that year as the opener tasked with replacing the recently retired Matthew Hayden.

Hughes made his debut in Johannesburg, shaking as he was presented with Baggy Green No.408 by skipper Ricky Ponting as one of three debutants in the match. He made a four-ball duck in the first innings but rebounded to score 75 in his second dig.

The next Test, in Durban, was history in the making. The South Africans thought Hughes had a short-ball weakness, but he turned it into a strength and used the pace of the Proteas attack against them.

Hughes brought up his maiden Test century in his third Test innings, and followed it up with a brilliant 160 in the second.

At 20 years, three months and nine days old, he became the youngest to record a century in both innings of a Test, a record he still holds.

That winter took Hughes to England where he played the season with Middlesex in the County Championship second division.

In five innings across three matches, Hughes scored an incredible three centuries and two half-centuries. He racked up 574 runs at 143.5 and a high score of 195.

A dream for every Australian cricketer, Hughes played in his first Ashes series in 2009, but a barrage of short-pitched bowling would bring a premature end to his series.

Hughes would taste team success early in his career as part of the NSW Blues team that took out the 2009 Champions League T20 tournament. He starred with the bat alongside close friend and fellow opener David Warner, with both batters scoring more than 200 runs in the competition.

Hughes played his first Test on Australian soil in Sydney against Pakistan in January 2010. Like his debut innings abroad, he scored a first-innings duck.

In his next Test in March that year, and chasing 106 to win against New Zealand in Wellington, Hughes smashed 86 from 75 balls to propel Australia to an emphatic 10-wicket win.

In front of 84,345 fans, Hughes’s first Boxing Day Test in 2010 ended on a sour note in a forgettable 2010-11 Ashes series. Australia lost in Melbourne by an innings and 157 runs after being rolled for 98 on day one.

Four years after becoming the youngest player to score a century in a Shield final, Hughes would post another Shield final ton, this time on a seaming green track against Tasmania in Hobart.

Under pressure again after a lean series opening the batting in Sri Lanka in September 2011, Hughes scored a match-saving century in the third Test in Colombo to see Australia draw the match and hand Michael Clarke a win in his first series as captain.

A week after the Cape Town capitulation that saw Australia bowled out for 47 at the hands of hosts South Africa, Hughes played a starring role in the epic second Test win at the Wanderers, Johannesburg.

Combining for 174 with opening partner Watson, the pair each scored 88 to set up a first innings lead before Test debutant Pat Cummins took six wickets and hit the winning runs to record a thrilling two-wicket win.

An injury to Watson presented Hughes a familiar face for a new opening partner in Warner, who made his Test debut for the two-Test series against New Zealand in late 2011.

But the series would Hughes's last for 12 months, dropped for the third time in his short career after a series of low scores.

Hughes would return to English County cricket in 2012, this time with division one outfit Worcestershire.

The left-hander would go on to make 560 runs and score two centuries in first-class cricket, but it would be in the limited-overs competitions where Hughes would really shine, averaging 81 in one-day cricket, and was the leading run-scorer in the T20 tournament with an incredible average of 100.50.

Hughes moved to South Australia for the 2012-13 Sheffield Shield season, and the change of badge on his heldmet did nothing to dampen his prolific run-scoring – 95 and 83 on debut against Queensland at the Gabba.

His move to South Australia also meant turning out for KFC T20 Big Bash League club Adelaide Strikers, scoring two fifties as the men in blue narrowly missed the finals.

Almost a year after being dropped and on the back of 158 for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield at the MCG, Hughes returned to the Test team to take on Sri Lanka in the 2012-13 summer.

He would miss out on that elusive fourth Test ton twice, grabbing a pair of 80s in his 243 runs for the series.

His domestic one-day form was not overlooked, picked for the five-match home ODI series against Sri Lanka, with Hughes vindicating his selection by becoming the first Australian to score a century on ODI debut. He would add another hundred, 138, in the fifth ODI in Hobart 12 days later.

With more than 1,100 runs across all three formats, Hughes was named Australia’s Domestic Player of the Year at the 2013 Allan Border Medal awards night, receiving 33.80 per cent of the player votes.

Australia’s next Test tour would take them to the Indian subcontinent where Hughes and his teammates struggled against the local spin and hostile wickets.

Over the course of the four matches, Hughes’s hard work off the field started to show on it, significantly contributing in the last two Tests, scoring a half-century in the third Test in Mohali.

A month after the tour of India, Hughes was named in the 16-player squad for the 2013 Ashes series.

In the first Test at Trent Bridge, he would again enter the record books, this time with 19-year-old debutant Ashton Agar as the pair combined for 163 runs. It was at the time the highest 10th wicket partnership in Test history.

However, one Test later at Lord’s, Hughes could only manage a single in each innings in what would be his last appearance in a Baggy Green for Australia.

As he had done so many times before, Hughes returned to first-class cricket and piled on the runs, scoring his maiden double-century against Western Australia in November 2013.

Hughes would once again post Bradman-like numbers, this time for Australia A against the touring India A and South Africa A in the 2014 winter.

He would become the first man in Australian domestic cricket to score 200 in a 50 over one-day game, before scoring his second first-class double-century with a commanding 243 not out against South Africa A in Townsville.

Hughes was recalled to the Test squad for Australia's series against Pakistan in the UAE in October 2014, but was overlooked by selectors for both Tests.

Until the very end, Phillip Hughes was doing what Phillip Hughes did best – compiling runs in his own unique fashion. His final innings finished 63 not out.