Phillip Hughes passed away Thursday at a hospital in Sydney

As the world mourns the tragic death of the left-hander, we take a look at Phillip Hughes – the man underneath cap no. 408

Country lad: Phillip Hughes was born in Macksville, a tiny town in northern New South Wales. His family owned a banana farm, where he spent most of his childhood.

Multi-talented: He played both rugby and cricket but by 10 he was so relentless in practice that the Macksville Cricket Club moved the bowling machine to his house. Hughes had shown a lot of promise as a rugby player as well. He even played along with Australian fullback Greg Inglis.

Boy Versus machine: His father Greg bowled to him in the backyard every day after he finished school. Later, Greg bought him a bowling machine. Hughes used to face around 120 to 150 balls every day, according to his father.

Once a farm-boy…: Hughes loved fashion and wore earrings, designer T-shirts and jeans. But he was farm-boy at heart and loved to breed chickens. “When I first came down to Sydney the boys said I looked more ‘city’ than them,” he had told Sydney Morning Herald once. “Then I started talking about the farm and how I love banana and cattle farming and they all thought I was joking,” he said.

The no. 408: Having grown in a farm, he was rooted in the culture. Cricket Australia website says “one of his passions was to breed Angus cattle with the name Four O Eight Angus.” The ‘Four O Eight’ refers to his Baggy Green number.

In Clarke’s footsteps: In November 2007, Hughes became the youngest player to play for NSW since his close friend Michael Clarke. Hughes was just 18 years old and 10 days away from his 19th birthday.

Beginning with a bang: Phil Hughes was also the youngest to score two hundreds in the same game during Australia’s tour to South Africa in 2009. He is also the first Australian to score a century on ODI debut (vs Sri Lanka in Melbourne in 2013).

More records fall: An unbeaten 202 against South Africa ‘A’ made him the first Australian to score a double century in ‘List A’ limited overs match. He beat the previous record of 197 set up by David Warner.

‘You’re F**king Weak’: During his knock of 195 for Middlesex against Surrey, Hughes had a run-in with Andre Nel. Having leaked runs against Hughes, Nel, who had played for South Africa by then, slipped in beamer and the 20-year old Hughes followed Nel down the track to tell him that he was “weak, f**king weak, that is why you quit international cricket to play for Surrey”.