West Indies legend Brian Lara believes Australia are not the same side the world once feared to play.
Australia have lost their past five Tests and are in prime position to lose their first series whitewash on home soil in Test history, and Lara says the Aussies don't have that same fear factor anymore.
“Nobody’s scared of them anymore, I think that’s understood,” Lara told Fox Sports News on Wednesday.
“The Australians are struggling a bit at the cricket but I think most importantly that they don’t press the panic button.
“You can’t take anything away from the South Africans because they are playing very, very good cricket; they most likely would beat any cricket team in the world right now.
“Australia’s got to pick up the pieces, head to Adelaide and see if they can salvage some pride.”
The former West Indian batsman has seen such a decline first hand, as his Test squad capitulated throughout the 1990s and 2000s as the Windies lost most of their players to decline rapidly at the international game.
Despite living through that process Lara doesn't believe Australia are in that position just yet, simply because they have better facilities and infrastructure than the West Indies ever did.
“I think it’s shocking for me because I thought the infrastructure here’s great and one of the problems in the West Indies is that there’s no infrastructure, there’s no money.
“I thought that the Australians had everything going.”
