Phillip Hughes anniversary special: Darren Lehmann reveals star’s Test recall v India before disaster hit
Darren Lehmann has revealed that Phillip Hughes was secretly selected for a Test recall before his tragic death – but not for an injured Michael Clarke, as has been widely speculated in the decade since.
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Darren Lehmann has revealed that Phillip Hughes had been secretly selected for an Australian Test recall just before his tragic death.
Ten years on from the day that shattered the entire cricket world, Lehmann, the former Australian coach and selector said he and his panel had already held a meeting in Brisbane where they had decided Hughes would be recalled to the Test team at the expense of opener Chris Rogers.
When Hughes took to the SCG for South Australia on the morning of November 25, 2014 in a Sheffield Shield game against NSW, everything changed.
“Yeah, we’d had a meeting, already,” former Australian coach Darren Lehmann told this masthead.
“That was all done and we were about to tell Bucky Rogers he was going to make way out of the team.
“Then obviously we had to put everything on hold.
“… (When Phillip was hit) I was watching Shield cricket. The Queensland game was going on (at Allan Border Field in Brisbane) and it was around when we’d finished selecting and he was going to get picked again. That’s the hardest thing for everyone.
“I was in the office (next to AB Field) and they said Phil’s been hit. When we saw the video of that and he’s gone straight to hospital, I literally flew straight down. I just left work with just my tracksuit and that was it. I had to buy clothes when I got down there and work it all out.
“The most important thing was just to get down there and see if you could help in any way and be around all these players, staff, family and friends who were affected.
“You just cried for hours pretty much when you saw someone. That’s what it was like.”
It was wistfully speculated at the time that Hughes, who was 63 not out at the SCG when he was fatefully struck, was likely to come into the Australian team for the first Test because captain Michael Clarke was going to be ruled out with a hamstring injury.
But in actual fact – there wasn’t even any doubt about it: selectors had already locked Hughes’ name in before he took the field at the SCG.
Rogers told this masthead this week he was not aware of the plan for him to miss that first Test and had been told in an earlier phone call from Rod Marsh that he would play it, but wrote in his autobiography that he knew selectors were desperate to get Hughes back in the side.
“What was in the back of my mind though was this: if our scores had been reversed in the first round of Sheffield Shield matches when Phillip’s South Australian side played my Victoria, it would have been him that would have been selected for the first Test and not me,” Rogers wrote.
“I knew my time was coming to an end and that the selectors were desperately hoping Hughesy fulfilled his undoubted potential, but I had been hoping to put off my departure until after the Ashes the following winter.”
The impact on Lehmann, as it was on so many, was profound.
“You lose one of your family members, really. When you’re coaching, you treat them all like family. That’s the hardest thing. They’re under your tutelage and that happens on your watch. That’s what affects you and you never forget that. It’s with you every day,” Lehmann said.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about David Hookes or Phillip Hughes. It’s part and parcel of life I suppose and the mental problems you have day in and day out. Everyone is still struggling with it today, none more so than the family.”
Lehmann, along with the likes of Clarke, Shane Watson and Warner are adamant Hughes would have played 100 Test matches for Australia at the top of the order had tragedy not struck.
“Now you look back on it and remember how great a bloke he was and he would have played 100 Test matches for Australia, no doubt,” Lehmann said.
“He was just a superstar of the game.
“And he was getting back to where we knew he could be.
“He just loved everyone. I don’t think anyone disliked him.”
Fate cruelly robbed Hughes of the opportunity to return for the first Test that he had earned, but the powerful recollections of Clarke and Warner in a series published by this masthead today testify that he was very much with them in spirit when they did step back onto the field a few days after the funeral in Adelaide.
Warner made twin hundreds, Smith a grand ton, and captain Clarke an inspirational century after his back seized up early in the innings.
These memories will come flashing back when the first Test kicks off against India next week, particularly given Virat Kohli also made twin hundreds in that extraordinary match which doubled as an uplifting tribute to Hughes.
“As I often say, that was the most amazing Test match I’ve ever been involved in. To somehow get them to play was a credit to everyone, and none more so than the players,” Lehmann said.
“Kohli made two hundreds, Lyon got eight wickets and won it for us with an hour to go, Clarke did a hundred did his hamstring, Warner did a hundred, Smith did a hundred.
“To honour Phil and his family in that way, it was an unbelievable Test match.”
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Originally published as Phillip Hughes anniversary special: Darren Lehmann reveals star’s Test recall v India before disaster hit
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