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Pity the poor bloke facing up to Brett Lee’s first delivery when the Australian paceman unleashes months of frustration in the one-day series against England.
Lee, who missed Australia’s entire Ashes series, will likely line up in Friday’s opener to the seven-match series at The Oval.
He showed a glimpse of frightening pace in the only full over Australia bowled during their rain-affected Twenty20 series in Manchester and captain Michael Clarke declared he was raring to go.
“He’s felt sharp in the nets as well,” Clarke said.
“He is as fit as I’ve ever seen him.
“He’s training as hard as I’ve seen him train and he’s certainly got that hunger so I’m certain Brett will have a really good one-day series.”
But Clarke said all his players were keen to get on the park, especially after missing so much game time at Old Trafford.
“I think not just individually for Brett, but as a team this is a pretty big series for us,” Clarke said.
Meanwhile, Clarke is glad soccer isn’t as big a sport among his players as Australian Rules or rugby league.
England captain Andrew Strauss said his team would review their training routine after new opener Joe Denly was ruled out of the first one-dayer with a knee injury sustained during a soccer warm-up on Thursday.
Clarke, whose squad usually pass an Aussie Rules or league ball around to start or end training, said: “Football (soccer) is not the biggest sport for the guys in our team.
“They love their Aussie rules and rugby league, so we occasionally get a game of touch football, but there’s always a footy that the guys like to have a kick around.
“It’s unfortunate when injuries happen like this, but the trainers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They want to let the boys enjoy themselves but they also know that cricket is the No.1 priority.”
Denly suffered the injury after a collision with Owais Shah and had to be helped off the field.
Strauss said England had a “no-tackling” rule in place, but it is not the first time an England cricketer has suffered a football-related injury this season.
Ian Bell sustained an ankle knock in the build-up to the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston and Matt Prior had a back spasm shortly before play in the fourth Test at Headingley.
Strauss said: “Standing here today with Joe Denly getting injured, it’s very frustrating, and something we’ve got to look at.”
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