 Brett Lee would have been thinking of making a comeback to international cricket with the ICC World T20, but the same was stalled when he declared injured
and will need to miss the ICC World T20 in the West Indies.
Lee suffered from a muscle strain in his right forearm and will mean that by
the time he recovers from the injury the ICC World Twenty20 would be over. Brett Lee suffered the injury in the warm-up game between Australia and Zimbabwe.
It is likely that either the in-form Doug Bollinger or Ryan Harris will
make it to the squad. Both Bollinger and Harris had recently played in the IPL
for Chennai and Deccan respectively and both were highly successful at that.
Lee has yet to play international cricket since October and was to make a comeback
in this series after returning from elbow injury that had seen him miss most
of the IPL games. Lee took 1 for 13 in his four overs but felt pain after that
and the MRI scans revealed the injury and the extent.
A team spokesperson said, "It's a muscle strain. We have gone to the ICC
Technical Committee to ask for a replacement player."
Lee has been going through a spate of injuries since he had been out of cricket
in October. First, he was out of the Ashes with a side injury. He was fit enough
to play in the Champions League in India, but immediately after that, suffered
from an elbow injury. He had only just recovered from that, that he broke his
thumb and now, he has had problems with this one.
To add to their woes, Australia were beaten by Zimbabwe in the warm-up
game, after it looked like the Aussies would run home victors. Zimbabwe were
36/4 at one stage, before being propped up by Elton Chigumbura, who climbed
into the Aussies with a 35-ball 76. The Zimbabwean side scored 173 in the 20
overs, and despite being afforded a 49-ball 72 by Dave Warner, the Aussies
lost their way a lot in the middle and fell just one run short.
Australia had entered the semi-final of the ICC World T20 in the first edition
of the tournament, but in the second tournament, they had struggled against
West Indies and Sri Lanka and lost both games to crash out in the first round.
This had led to the resignation of Ricky Ponting from the game, and Michael Clarke will now lead the side.
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