“I didn’t know Phil Hughes particularly well, I’d played a few games against him, but when a fellow professional has something that happened to them, you can’t help but feel sad for his family, for his team-mates, for anyone who knew him. Also for (the bowler) Sean Abbott as well. It would have been horrific for him as well.

“It might give you a bit more of an understanding as to why we speak the way we do, you know, that there’s bigger things than results. When you think of it like that: a lot worse things could happen than losing a game of cricket.”

Stokes’ counterpart, Tom Latham, shared his sentiments and added: “Our thoughts are with Phil’s family on the anniversary. It puts cricket into perspective, it is just a game that we play.”