Profiles / Andrew Hughes / 28 October 2009 / Leave a comment

He has endured countless injury setbacks, but Australia's blonde spearhead remains as potent as ever. Andrew Hughes pays tribute to one of the best fast bowlers of all time

"His value is as a strike bowler of the highest class and, providing his workload is properly managed, he can fulfil that role for another two or three years on the international stage."

As Australia lost the Second One Day International in Nagpur, one of the Aussie onlookers had more reason than most to feel frustrated. Brett Lee has missed virtually all of Australia's fixtures this year. The cruellest blow of all was missing out on the Ashes due to a torn abdominal muscle sustained just days before the First Test in Cardiff. In his absence, Australia surrendered the urn and on Wednesday they allowed the Indians to pile up 354 runs on a bouncy track that was ideal for the blonde speedster.

Still, his latest injury is not a serious one. And you can be sure that when he does return, he will be firing on all cylinders. Throughout his career, his resilience has been remarkable and has been amply demonstrated over the last ten months. Last winter, he had a poor tour of India and there was talk of a rift between him and captain Ricky Ponting. Then, when he was forced to withdraw from the final Test against South Africa to undergo ankle surgery, there were those who thought the thirty-two year old had reached the end of his international career.

Yet he confounded expectations by bouncing back, first in the IPL and then, after his Ashes disappointment, in the Natwest Series against England. It took him no time at all to crank his speed up to 90 mph and at Lord's he was simply unplayable. Most fast bowlers experience considerable wear and tear and by the time they reach their thirties, they are usually slowing down. But Lee seems to have lost none of his pace. Indeed, these enforced absences from the game only seem to rejuvenate him.

The bowler we are seeing now is the finished article, Brett Lee Mark II, if you like. His first incarnation was as a tearaway speedster, dealing only in bouncers, yorkers (and the occasional beamer) and duelling with Shoaib Akhtar for the crown of the world's fastest bowler. He could be deadly, but he could also go for a few, as he did during the Ashes of 2005 and the legacy of this period of his career is a Test bowling average that still hasn't quite dropped below thirty.

But since the retirement of Glen McGrath in 2007, Lee has thrived on the responsibility of being the senior Australian fast bowler. He has improved his accuracy without sacrificing any speed and has added new skills to his bowling repertoire, most notably a mastery of reverse swing, all of which has served to make him a more resilient and more effective bowler.

His 310 wickets from 76 Test matches make him the third highest wicket taker in Australian fast bowling history, but more significantly, in terms of strike-rate, he is behind only Lillee, Thomson and McGrath of those Australian bowlers to have played a significant number of Tests. And he has the highest strike rate of any Aussie bowler in one day internationals ever. He deserves to be considered as one of the top five Australian fast bowlers of all time, perhaps surpassed only by those players already mentioned and the legendary Ray Lindwall.

It could be argued that his batting has also improved sufficiently for him to be considered worthy of batting at seven in Tests or even higher in limited overs cricket. Certainly the clubbing blows he struck in the Champions League final last Friday were worthy of an all-rounder, though it is debatable whether his technique is solid enough to take on a more prominent batting role. But it any case it seems unlikely that he will be asked to do so. His value is as a strike bowler of the highest class and, providing his workload is properly managed, he can fulfil that role for another two or three years on the international stage.

His immediate concern will be to help Australia re-establish their grip on the current contest in India. They were the better team in the opening game but their thrashing in Nagpur has seen the odds on an Aussie series victory take a walk out to [2.34]. India, buoyed by the commanding nature of Wednesday's win, are as short as [1.76] to take the seven-match series.

Tags: Ashes, Australia, Brett Lee, India, Nagpur, one-day cricket betting, Ricky Ponting, South Africa