I am ready for the burst – Brett Lee

One of the fastest bowlers of the current era, Brett Lee of Australia has hinted out appearing in the One Day International pretty soon. He was struck hard by a forceful shot from the blade of the Indian skipper, MS Dhoni on the second ball of the 17th over in the second Twenty20.

Brett Lee Hurt after being hit by MS Dhoni's lightening strike
Brett Lee Hurt after being hit by MS Dhoni's lightening strike

The match was played on February 3, 2012 at Melbourne Cricket Ground which was won by the visitors with a good margin of eight wickets.

The hammering blitz from Dhoni crashed into the boot of Lee which broke his toe and he was supposed to be out of the game for four to six weeks. He surprised everyone while showing his availability for the forthcoming match of the Commonwealth Bank Series duo to be played against Sri Lanka.

The 35-year-old has opted out from the longer versions of the game and played his last Test vs. South Africa in December, 2008, at Melbourne Cricket Ground. He has faced quite a few injury problems in his nearly 13 years international career and took part in the events with minor injuries.

Lee was focused on his comeback after a minor toe injury and preferred to serve the nation while commenting,
“People asked how I played with my toe split in half at the MCG, but you do these things when you play for your country. In terms of (my) pain threshold I’ve played a lot of games in pain … the reason I took time off was to ensure there wasn’t any long-term damage to the toe.”

The great speedster has been concentrating on the shorter versions of the game ever since he hanged his boots from Test cricket. He has performed well during his Test career by grabbing 310 wickets in 76 matches averaging 30.81, the best of 5 for 30 in an innings and 9 for 171 in a match.

The right arm fast bowler has appeared in 205 One Day Internationals for the Kangaroos, clinched 357 wickets at an excellent average of 22.89 runs per wicket with the best of 5 for 22 runs. He played his last ODI against Sri Lanka on August 20, 2011, at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo and gave a tremendous performance by grasping four wickets for just 15 runs in 6.4 overs as Australia won the game by five wickets.

The Aussies have won two games out of three played against India and Sri Lanka. They won the first two encounters against both rivals but India let them down in the fourth match of the tournament by four wickets at Adelaide Oval, on February 12, 2012.

Australia will face Sri Lanka in the fifth match of the series at Adelaide Oval on February 14, 2012 which will be a crunch game for them. Lee anticipates participating in the match while keeping in mind his performance of the last encounter against the same opponents at Colombo on August 20, 2011. He further commented,

I’m striving to be back for the game in Sydney (against Sri Lanka on Friday), I’m doing everything I possibly can to play. I’ve (played with pain) on numerous occasions and I know I can play with a broken toe.


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