Brett Lee has had a shocking last twelve months.
Injury, love woes, form loss, losing his king of cricket pop title to AB DeVillers, and the Chris Gayle ruining his come back.
Today he stepped over the carcass of the last 12 months.
Coming on after Ponting threatened to spank him for not taking the game seriously enough, Lee earned a test spot and went back to his golden form.
Lee’s problem is this coma he hops into from time to time where he leaks runs, forgets about wickets and frustrates everyone who wants him around.
It was only a few weeks ago I had the Brett Lee debate,
“Which Lee will make his comeback in the Ashes, the miserly demon leader or the run leaking waste of space?
Should Australia punt on Lee, with his poor record in the UK, or is it time to let him reclaim his birth right of Bollywood’s favourite white cricketer.
Usually I am so sure, but with Lee, I have already back flipped so many times my back is gone. For once I shall leave it to the selectors and Ricky, so I expect Lee to be there for the first test.”
How many people would pick Hillfenhaus or Hauritz ahead of him now?
It seems that all that earnestness in Lee’s demeanour of late has been transported into pure fast bowling aggression, even if he did need a kick in the bum from Ricky.
The score was 0/172 when he came on, a short time later the score was 5/209, and Brett Lee and Ricky Ponting were best friends again.
It was probably Andrew Hilditch’s favourite warm up spell of all time.
Lee went from a probable to a definite, and the bowling quartet was completed without a phone call needing to be made.
Even though England has been way more impressive than Australia in their warm up game, Australia must feel like they have hugged a leprechaun with their two biggest form worries coming good in one match.
And it must be said, Lee looked magnificent; like someone had covered in him in butter and told him he was God.
Reverse swing was his weapon, but he had pace, was almost unhittable, and had the presence of a man in charge.
The rest of the attack had a nap.
Get yourself over to cricket with balls for more jarrody goodness.
2 Comments
Always pick Brett, no matter what. He’s like, totally worth it.
Mark, you had me at the italic totally.