Sydney, No Nov 27 (IANS): Australian batsman Phillip Hughes, renowned as an aggressive batsman, was on the verge of reigniting his Test career before he was fatally hit on the head while batting in the Sheffield Shield.

At the time of his death, he was one of the front-runners to play the first Test against India starting Dec 4, due to skipper Michael Clarke's injury, and was in contention to be involved in the one-day and Twenty20 teams simultaneously for the first time in his career.

He was also touted as the future captain of the Australian team.

Hughes played his final Test 16 months ago at Lord's in England and was making a fine case of a Test recall, batting dominantly on 63 runs in a Sheffield Shield match at the Sydney Cricket Ground against New South Wales.

But the South Australian batsman collapsed on the ground after being struck on the back of the head by a bouncer from pacer Sean Abbott. He was rushed to hospital and died of his injuries Thursday.

Hughes burst into the international cricket when, as a 20-year-old opener, in just his second Test against South Africa in March 2009, he became the youngest man to hit a century in each innings of a Test.

He scored 115 and 160 in two innings against a strong pace attack led by Dale Steyn.

Hughes also added another notable feat to his career graph when he marked his one-day international debut in January 2013 by becoming the first Australian to score a century on debut in that format.

He also played in England for Worcestershire and Hampshire and the Indian Premier League for Mumbai Indians.

The left-handed batsman made his Twenty20 international debut in October this year in a victory over Pakistan in Dubai.

Factfile
Name: Phillip Joel Hughes
Birthdate: November 30, 1988 (age 25)
Birthplace: Macksville, New South Wales
Style: Left-handed opening batsman
Batting figures (matches, innings, not outs, runs, highest score, average, 100s, 50s, caught)
Tests: 26 49 2 1535 160 32.65 3 7 15
ODIs: 25 24 1 826 138* 35.91 2 4 5
T20s: 1 1 0 6 6 6.00 0 0 0
First class: 113 208 14 8960 243* 46.18 26 45 72
Test debut: South Africa v Australia at Johannesburg, February 2009
Last Test: England v Australia at Lord's, July 2013
ODI debut: Australia v Sri Lanka at Melbourne, January 2013
Last ODI: Australia v Pakistan at Abu Dhabi, October 2014