The tons and tweak that had Hughes primed to dominate

Phillip Hughes's long-time coach has described how small technical changes had the late opener ready to take the world by storm, just before his tragic passing. Cricket will this week mark 10 years since one of its toughest days, when Hughes's life was cruelly ended playing the game he loved. His death, two days after being struck by a ball while batting at the SCG for South Australia, triggered weeks of mourning across the country. The avid cattle farmer's loss was felt as directly in his childhood town of Macksville as it was by cricketers around Australia. The prodigal talent, who grew up with a Steve Waugh poster on his bedroom wall, always had a habit of banging out eye-catching centuries. They were near-constant as he rose up the junior ranks. At every level, against both men and boys. And it became known that when Hughes decided he was going to go big, he did so. In his maiden under-age game for his state as a 12-year-old, he hit 115 not out. In an under-19 series between Australia and Pakistan, where no other batter passed 50, he peeled off two hundreds and a couple of half-centuries. "It was almost like a myth," says Tom Cooper, who grew up three hours south of Hughes and would later be his teammate and housemate in South Australia. "Under-age you used to have to retire on 25 or 50, so I'd hardly scored a hundred by the time I left. "But then it was like this guy has scored however many hundreds already, and he is a genius." When Hughes left Macksville as a 17-year-old, having committed with D'Costa to trying to succeed Matthew Hayden as Australia's Test opener, that total number of hundreds was close to 70. Another century came in his first senior match in Sydney. Another on ODI debut. Hughes remains the youngest player to score a century in a Sheffield Shield final, having done so at age 19 while averaging 63.24 across his first three state seasons. Simon Katich highlights how Hughes, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja were among the rising stars making first-class debuts for NSW in the 2007-08 season. "Hughesy got off to a quicker start than all those guys," Katich recalls. Katich was Hughes's first captain and opening partner at NSW, and the man who walked out to bat with him on Test debut in South Africa in 2009. Hayden had just retired. Hughes's ambitious goal was fulfilled. Katich also opened with Hughes when he became the youngest person to score twin tons in a Test, just months after his 20th birthday ... against South African greats Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini, Morne Morkel and Jacques Kallis. "The reason he had success was he was hugely talented," Katich says. "But also he had a good head on his shoulders, he had a wonderful family, a lot of support. And he had huge belief in himself. "That was critical to make it at the top level. "While his technique was unique, I think he had a lot of strengths in his game to be really successful at Test cricket in his next coming." There remains a sense around Australian cricket that an unforgettable technique made him the easy man to drop. His first axing came just three Tests after those twin hundreds, and his last came after making an unbeaten 81 for Australia in the first Test of the 2013 Ashes. "As unorthodox as he was, he did the basics right," Cooper says. "He was balanced, played the ball late. I never recall him doubting his way at any point in his career. "He almost paved the way for the Steve Smiths of the world, because he got treated unfairly as such because his technique wasn't textbook. "It showed that runs is the currency." Hughes sought a fresh start in South Australia and, having gone on his run spree following the work with D'Costa, a Test recall was imminent. It had effectively been rubber-stamped by selectors ahead of the first Test of 2014-15. And by the time the boy from Macksville calmly advanced to 63 not out at the SCG, the spot was his. "He was locked in ... I almost wish he was batting shit," says Cooper, who was at the non-striker's end when Hughes was struck. "But he used to love going home to play against NSW. He was set. He could hurt you fast, but he could also lock in and bat long. He did what the team needed. "He was going to get back in the (Test) team, which I think everyone knew. He knew it. Us as teammates, them as opposition, everyone knew it." Warner, among the Test stars in the field for the left-hander's final innings, believes Hughes would have been a mainstay at the top of the order. Instead, Australia have gone through 14 openers in the decade since. "I don't think it's too simple to say he would've been the answer," Katich says. "Because we saw Davey Warner's career play out, and there is no doubt Hughesy was ahead of him in a way, with Davey starting red-ball cricket a little later. "He beat Uzzy and Smithy to Test cricket. I've seen them since they were kids, and we all knew they were going to be very good players. "I've got no doubt that had the tragedy not occurred, we would have seen the best of Hughesy from that period on." For D'Costa, it is the potential of Hughes that will last forever, after first speaking to him over the phone as a teenager and regularly hearing about his latest centuries. "You look at the (Don) Bradman records that Phil broke ... Michael (Clarke) was like that as well. Their self-belief is unwavering," D'Costa says. "I think that will be the legacy. That's what will make him last forever. "It's like Archie Jackson (who died of tuberculosis at age 23 in 1933), it's the same thing. "We will remember Phil forever, because we'll never know. There's no way to know."