Sydney, November 27: He has not been in his best form in recent times following several injury lay-offs which has cost him his place in the Australian team, but fast bowler Brett Lee is confident that he will be back to his best in time for the 2011 ICC World Cup in the Subcontinent.
”Long-term I want to be playing for Australia during the World Cup, but I know what I’ve got to do, just try to do well with the ball and the rest will hopefully take care of itself.
”Long-term it’s going to be the best thing for me if I want to achieve my goals.
”One is to play in the World Cup in India, which is special to me. I’ve been more than happy with what I’ve got out of Test cricket from the way I played in an amazing era with great guys,” Lee was quoted as saying by the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’.
”I still find it hard to watch Test cricket on the TV, but I have no regrets,” he added.
The veteran of 76 Tests and 186 One-day Internationals showed he was returning to his devastating best with a man-of-the-match performance against Western Australia in the Ryobi One-Day Cup at the WACA Ground in Perth, leading New South Wales to a seven-run victory with figures of 5-47 in his 10.4 overs.
But although happy with his latest performance, Lee said he is taking his comeback one step at a time.
”I’m just enjoying my cricket, whether that’s playing for the Blues, or in two weeks time playing for Wellington, I’m just trying to keep taking wickets and leading the boys to a victory.
”I just tried to run in a little bit faster and obviously the quicker that you run in the closer you will get to the line so I put my run up back a little bit,” he said.
”I wanted to hit the wicket flat out and I have felt good in the last couple of matches I’ve played, but just wasn’t quite hitting the crease as hard as I possibly can.
”I felt good in Brisbane in the last match that I played, but I felt like I wasn’t quite hitting the crease hard enough, so tonight I let the handbrake off out there and let it go a bit, and it felt like it was going pretty quick,” he added.
–UNI