Almost four months on and David Warner still can’t reconcile why Phillip Hughes lost his life playing cricket.

One of the most explosive run-scorers in Australia’s Test-match history and the self-confessed sledging leader of the national team, Warner has confirmed his status as the world’s premier opener since Hughes died on November 27 last year.

But the hard-nosed hero and millionaire graduate of South Sydney’s housing commission blocks still tears up recalling the fateful summer day at the SCG when Hughes, one of Warner’s closest friends and former NSW and Australian teammate, was fatally struck in the head by a bouncer.

Playing against Hughes in the Sheffield Shield that afternoon, Warner was first to his mate’s aid and on the medicab as the lifeless opener was taken from the field and then rushed to hospital.

He prayed for a miracle that never came, with 25-year-old Hughes’ life support machine turned off two days later.

“When I got home that day after it happened, I was standing in the shower and I was sort of facing my wall in the shower with my hands in my head going ‘Why?’,” Warner told 60 Minutes.

“It hurts. The thought of coming off that day holding his hand. It hurts every day when I think about it.

“It’s hard to talk about it now … Why does this happen? Why did this happen in the game of cricket?”

Despite his grieving, Warner stoically struck twin centuries, knocks of 145 and 102, in the first Test against India in Adelaide Oval in Australia’s first match after Hughes’ tragic death.

He also kissed the pitch where Hughes was felled when he reached 63 not out in his first innings at the SCG since Hughes died before going on to make 101 that innings – in the fourth Test in January.