London, July 22: Injury-plagued Brett Lee’s participation in the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston is hanging in balance, and Australia will only decide over the pacer’s fitness in the next couple of days.
The 32-year-old fast bowler, who missed the opening two Ashes Tests of the five-match series since he was diagnosed with a side injury, will have to play a tour match against Northamptonshire this week to prove his fitness ahead of the third Test but much to his worries, the pacer’s participation in the match is doubtful.
The Australians are believed to be aware of the situation that they lacked a pace spearhead at the Lord’s Test, which was also one of the reasons for them going one down against England in the ongoing Ashes series, but coach Tim Nielsen doesn’t want to rush Lee back too soon and increase the chances of another injury lay-off.
”We will see how we go. We are progressing with him. The positive thing is that in a tour game we do have the flexibility over how much we can bowl him or how much we don’t bowl him,” Nielsen said.
”He hasn’t bowled yet, so we just have to sit with the medical staff over the next few days and chat about how much we need to get into him and whether it is going to progress him to the stage where he could play in the third Test.
”My feeling is, if it is not going to mean he is available to play in the third Test match, we are going to have to be really careful about rushing him back,” he was quoted as saying by ‘The Guardian’.
Lee has not played a Test for Australia since the Boxing Day defeat to South Africa. He took six first-innings wickets against England Lions last month but suffered discomfort in his ribs later.
Since then, he has not bowled and the Australians believe that the fast bowler has not had enough match practice to make a effective return.
”The injury that he has is a bowling-specific injury and history shows if you have those injuries again it tends to be six, eight, 10 weeks before they come right, if you actually re-tear the side,” said Nielsen. ”Two, three, four overs in the nets is probably not enough to prove that he is right to go.
”If he had to bowl say 11 overs in a row, like Andrew Flintoff did yesterday, to win a Test match for us, we would want to be comfortable that he is strong and fit enough and able to do it,” he added.
Meanwhile, skipper Ricky Ponting said he expected Australia to take on England in next week’s third Test with more or less an unchanged squad.
”I wouldn’t expect too many changes, it’s not panic stations for us just yet,” he said.
However, he added that the game against Northamptonshire would give his side the chance to assess any fresh contenders for the side.
”We’ll wait and see how our guys play up.
”It’s a vital game and a good opportunity for us,” the 34-year-old batsman said.
—–Agencies