Rising star bowler Sean Abbott will be changed forever by Phillip Hughes' death

Sean Abbott bowled the ball that struck Phillip Hughes in the head. Photo / Getty Images

When Sean Abbott made his Sheffield Shield debut for New South Wales in 2011, one of the team-mates who welcomed the quiet teenager into the fold was Philip Hughes. Like Abbott, Hughes came through Sydney grade cricket and made his Shield debut at 18. After the tragic events of this week, their names will now forever be linked.

Yet at the age of just 22, the fast bowler is young enough and talented enough to remake his career on his own terms. Having made his one-day international and Twenty20 debuts against Pakistan last month, Abbott is one of the rising stars of Australian cricket. He was even being talked about as an outside contender for a place in the World Cup squad early next year. Once he is over his ordeal, perhaps that conversation can recommence.

For now, his fellow cricketers are supporting him as best they can. Fast bowlers the world over have been lining up to tell him: this was not your fault.

"He's out there to get Phil Hughes out," said former Australian seamer Stuart Clark. "It's a competitive sport, it's professional sport and I really feel for Sean Abbott at the moment. I hope he's got support. You just worry that this could jeopardise his cricket career, and we don't want that."

Meanwhile, Stuart Broad said: "As a fast bowler you bowl a short ball with aggressive intent, but then as soon as you hit someone, your entire body stops, and all you care about is the well-being of that person.

"You've got to feel sorry for the lad who bowled the bouncer, but he can't feel any guilt. That's part of a bowler's armoury. He's done nothing wrong.

It is, as they say, one of the unseen perils of fast bowling. And from an early age, Abbott dreamed of bowling fast. He grew up with a love of the outdoors, a fan of dirt biking and horse riding. His uncle played rugby league for Parramatta Eels. But after beginning as a wicketkeeper in junior cricket, he developed a taste for pace, playing grade cricket for Sydney University and breaking into the Australian under-19 side too.

His one-day debut came in October 2010, a year before his first-class debut, and for all his all-round capabilities it is in the limited overs formats that he has performed best so far. He was the leading wicket-taker in the domestic 50-over competition last season, as well as averaging 32 with the bat. It is a testament to his batting ability that when he made his Australia debut, he was sent out ahead of Mitchell Johnson

And yet, it is only really in the last year or two that Abbott's potential has become fully apparent. For a while he struggled to channel his aggression positively. "I got into a few bad habits when I first started and quickly had to get rid of those," he admitted recently. "I was just a bit loud on the field, getting a bit angry. I'd bowl a half-volley at the end of my over and be yelling at myself, and it's not really a good look."

According to Phil Jaques, the former Test batsman and assistant coach of New South Wales, Abbott has knuckled down. "He was quite a raw performer when he first started, but the last 12 to 18 months he's had, he's really put on a yard of pace and got a little bit smarter with his plans and the way he goes about things."

In September, Abbott was at a national performance camp when the call came through from Rod Marsh, summoning him for international duty. His first call was to his mother and sisters. "They were yelling and screaming," he later remembered.

And although he would have been perfectly happy to fly out to the United Arab Emirates and carry the drinks for a few weeks, Abbott was handed his international Twenty20 debut at Dubai on October 5. With his fourth ball in international cricket, he produced a searing 90mph in-swinging yorker to clean up Shahid Afridi. Not a bad first scalp.
Two days later he made his ODI debut, and got Afridi again.

Abbott was in his element. "I never really felt like I've bowled that fast before," he said. And so the player that returned to Australia was a player at the very top of his game, convinced he was on the verge of a breakthrough.

With the abandonment of the Shield game at Sydney, Abbott's 10th over of the match remains unfinished. As Hughes dropped to the ground, Abbott was the first man on the scene, cradling him in his arms. "It says a lot about Sean, doesn't it?" said James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia.

On Wednesday, he returned to the SCG for a team counselling session. On Thursday afternoon, he arrived at St Vincent's Hospital in central Sydney, where he met some of Hughes's friends and team-mates. He sat and had a coffee with Steve Waugh. Nathan Lyon put an arm around him. Simon Katich consoled him as he left. The Australian Cricketers' Association said Abbott was being "monitored closely".