Test discard Phil Hughes clubbed a confident 73 to lead NSW to 4-195 at tea on day one of their Sheffield Shield clash against Queensland on Thursday.

Hughes, who was dropped on four in an otherwise chanceless innings, showed an aggressive mindset on his way to his half century before being trapped lbw by Steve Magoffin midway through the second session at the SCG.

Nonetheless, it was an impressive knock on a green wicket under overcast skies from a player whose game was in tatters when dropped from the Test team at the start of the summer.

Hughes put on a 68-run partnership with Usman Khawaja (15), before combining well with Simon Katich (42) as NSW looked to move on from their horror outright loss to Western Australia last week.

Meanwhile, Test quick Ryan Harris, who was this week dropped from the Australian one-day side, has easily been the pick of the bowlers with 3-62.

He picked up the wickets of Nic Maddinson (13), Khawaja and Katich but should’ve had more – with two catches dropped off his bowling, including that of Hughes.

Out-of-form Test wicketkeeper Brad Haddin is in desperate need of runs, but has already offered a catch in the slips off Harris’ bowling before creeping to six not out at tea.

Allrounder Steve Smith is the other not out batsman on 32.