Phillip Hughes was the kind of fellow player you always liked to keep an eye on from afar. I would always look out for his scores and hope he had made runs because he batted with a wonderful spirit and freedom. He made the absolute most of his ability and wanted to entertain the supporters by playing cricket in the positive style we all love to watch.

He did not have a classic batting technique but he was able to score runs in his own way. That takes incredible hard work, inner belief and mental toughness. I used to hear all the time from his Aussie mates what a good guy he was, how he was respectful and humble. It is a desperately sad day not just for cricket but for the whole of sport.

He burst on to the scene with those twin hundreds against South Africa in 2009, just a few months before we were due to play Australia in that summer’s Ashes series. He then went on to knock out hundred after hundred for Middlesex so we did a lot of work studying his technique before that 2009 series.