David Warner reflects on testing times following Phil Hughes’ passing

Dec 17, 2014

David Warner, the Australian batsman, has expressed his thoughts about Phil Hughes’ passing and the Adelaide Test against India. Warner smashed two centuries in the first Test against India in Adelaide to overcome the grief of losing a friend and teammate. Warner was on the field when Hughes was hit by the ball and was besides him as he was stretchered off the field.

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Writing in his column for News Corp, Warner expressed, “When I look back and reflect on it, you almost knew then and there that we had to be prepared for the worst. Holding his hand as we rode together in the medicab, and how I saw him on the field, it’s not what I wanted my last image of him to be.”

Warner described how he spent the leadup to the Adelaide Test. “I spent almost nine hours on the golf course and at the driving range the day after Hughesy died, just contemplating what was going to happen to myself. I was speaking to my fiancée Candice about the Adelaide match a lot and I can’t thank her enough for her support,” he wrote.

Warner had smashed 145 on the first day and he had raced to 35 off 17 balls on the first morning. “When I got out there on day one, those first couple of overs where I hit all those boundaries, that was all adrenalin. I don’t think that was me actually playing. Eventually I brought it back and started playing within myself again,” Warner wrote.