'It will take time to find form'

Brett Lee has had a rough time of it in recent months, and with Michael Kasprowicz doing a fair impression of a phoenix from the ashes, he finds himself tussling for a place in an XI that's unlikely to have more than three fast man in a match. Lee bowled through much of last winter's home series against India with a fractured ankle, and that "weird" experience was part of the reason for his slipping down the pecking order.

Having had an operation last October to remove a bone spur from his left ankle, Lee found that the pain came back once he exerted himself against the in-form Indians. His eight wickets, in the two Tests he played, cost him a whopping 476 runs, and he was a pale shadow of the bowler who had terrorised the Indians on his debut in 1999-2000.

In an interview with the BBC's website, Lee admitted that it had been a trying time. "It was hard to bowl with that sort of pain," he said. But when pressed further, he baulked against making excuses for his insipid displays. "I wouldn't have played for Australia if I felt I couldn't do the job," he said. "There are so many players who could do the job that it wouldn't be right to do that, but I felt I could get through."

Since those injury travails, Lee's road to recovery has included sessions with Dennis Lillee, and a new, shorter, run-up which he often practises with eyes closed. "I'm 100% fit but it will take time to find form," he said. "I've had four matches back and I feel good but getting into match situations and taking wickets takes time."

Having already had to endure elbow and back surgery, Lee insisted that the current schedules don't give players enough time to heal. "It's not just the amount of cricket but the travelling and training," he said. "If you're playing in a pressure match then hopping on a flight, your muscles seize up and you're going to be tired.

"It's got to be looked at in terms of where and who you're playing. We need four months off per year because the body needs time to recover."

Lee could conceivably miss the winner-takes-all clash against New Zealand at The Oval, with Australia unlikely to play all four pace bowlers, but he insisted that Australia were in fine shape to take another step towards the one major trophy that has eluded them in their decade of dominance.

"It's always a big one [against New Zealand] and I think it's because we get on well and we're mates off the field," he said. "But it's a great challenge and once we get over that white [boundary] line the mateship goes."

Now 28, Lee knows that he has to do much more to realise the potential that he showed on entering the international arena. Since a dismal showing on the Ashes tour of 2001, he has seldom sliced through batting line-ups, and with Shoaib Akhtar having upped the ante in the pace stakes, Lee is a man in a hurry to make up for time and opportunities lost.