Melbourne, September 04: Stand-in captain Michael Clarke believes that paceman Brett Lee is fit enough to launch a lethal attack against England and put his disappointing summer behind him.
The 32-year-old fast bowler, who has played a vital role in Australia’s historic victory 5-0 in the 2006-07 Ashes, but this time a rib injury prevented him from taking part in the tourists’ bid, which was unsuccessfull after the hosts regained the urn after four years.
After Lee missed the entire five-match Test series, he announced his return to action by taking two wickets in Australia’s first game since their Ashes loss- a 189-run win over Scotland a week ago.
Lee was impressive in the abandoned first Twenty20 match against England, where he came up with figures of one for three after removing opener Joe Denly with his fiercy spell.
Following his show in practice games, Lee is likely to spearhead the Australian attack along with Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus and Dirk Nannes in today’s day-night match.
”He looked sharp in the Twenty20s and he has been pretty sharp in the nets as well,” Clarke said of Lee. ”He’s as good as I’ve seen him. He’s training as hard as I have seen him train and he certainly has the hunger so I’m certain he will have a really good one-day series,” he was quoted as saying by ‘The Herald Sun’.
Clarke, who will lead the Australian side till the third ODI as skipper Ricky Ponting has been resting at his home, further said though the tourists are still reeling from the Test defeat, but believes that the ODI series can provide the World Champuions the perfect chance to build some momentum ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy
, starting September 22 in South Africa.
”This is a huge series for us. We really want to do well.
”We didn’t win the Test series. We have seven ODIs here so we have to try and win this series to take some positives from this English tour and build that momentum and success leading up to a big ODI tournament in the ICC Champions Trophy.
”What I have been trying to express to the team is that every game is very important.
”We want to perform and win every game we play. That’s how you build momentum.
”How you experience team bonding and team success is by getting wins under your belt and we have a great opportunity to do that here,” the 28-year-old said.
—–Agencies