Former Australian cricketer Kim Hughes believes Australian players are disrespecting the Sheffield Shield competition after serving up a dismal performance against India in the First Test at Optus Stadium. 

Australia’s test summer is off to an underwhelming start, after scoring 104 in their first batting inning, then proceeding to allow India to run rampant with the bat, scoring 6/487 across day two and three of the test. 

India set Australia a mammoth task to chase over 500 runs to secure the test, however, after being three wickets down at stumps on day three, it looks unlikely Australia will chase down the total. 

Speaking on day four of the Perth Test, Hughes believes a lack of preparation resulted in a ‘piss-poor’ performance. 

“The basics don’t change. The old piece, prior proper preparation, prevents piss-poor performance and they’ve been piss-poor,” he told SportFM.

“Australia’s looked a long, long way short of test cricket, and we’re paying the price for cricket Australia, allowing the players to dictate on how they’re feeling.

“If you don’t like it, go play somewhere else, but don’t play for us, don’t put baggy green on. Embarrassing” 

Several Australian Test players opted out of the recent Pakistan white ball series to prepare for the test, however, numbers against India suggest a lack of preparation from the Aussies altogether. 

What is even more alarming is numerous key players in the Australian test set up have played under ten have Sheffield Shield games over the past five years, with skipper Pat Cummins having played one within that time frame. 

Fellow bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have played for New South Wales eight and four times respectively, while batsman Steve Smith has featured twice. 

For Western Australia, the reigning Allan Border Medallist and all-rounder Mitch Marsh has only played four Shield games since 2020. 

When asked if the Australian players are disrespecting the Shield competition, Hughes agreed that they ‘absolutely do’.

“What is even a bigger challenge is you sit down and think if these blokes aren’t playing, who’s going to come in?” he said.  

“We’ve got a few youngsters that maybe slogged the white ball all over the place in the crash and bash T20. But when I think about who’s around in the various states, there’s no names that really jump in and looks like a really exciting prospect with the bat. 

“A number of our bowlers, whether it’s Jhye Richardson or some of these guys, they no sooner play and then they get injured and they’re out for another month or six weeks or whatever it happens to be. Australian cricket at the moment has got some real challenges in front of it. 

“India is only going to get better. Jaiswal, the left-hander, beautiful technique. He gets himself set nice and early and a lot of our blokes thought their footwork is just non-existent and you could get it sorted out in about 30 seconds.” 

Hughes is also concerned about the reverance of the Baggy Green being lost, and the future of Australian Test cricket as T20 Cricket continues to become the more tempting format because of its financial benefits. 

This comes as exciting batting prospect Jake Fraser-McGurk signed a $1.6M deal with the Dehli Capitals with in the IPL, meanwhile Australia struggles for Australian red ball batting depth. 

“You would like to think that the baggy green will never lose its reverence, and what we need is our senior players to keep that trademark or that tradition going. 

“I’m worried about where Australian cricket’s going to go over the next couple of years, because we’ve got the Ashes coming next summer, and that’ll be obviously a huge thing. 

“We’ve got a lot of our players are all 33 or older. Where are our youngsters that have a burning desire to wear the baggy green, and do it for nothing?“

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