A roll of Australia’s greatest Test pacemen would feature Dennis Lillee, Glenn McGrath, Ray Lindwall, Alan Davidson and Fred Spofforth. Slightly below them sit the likes of Craig McDermott, Jeff Thomson, Graham McKenzie, Jason Gillespie, and Brett Lee.
The retirement of Lee from Test cricket was not a great surprise given the wear and tear intrinsic to his trade, but it does provide an opportunity to assess where he rates among Australian fast bowlers.
Lee’s Test average of 30.81 for his 310 wickets across 76 matches does not place him in particularly revered company.
But his strike rate of 53.3 balls per wicket ranks him only a fraction below Lillee and McGrath, while also placing Lee ahead of such luminaries of speed as Curtly Ambrose, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Andy Roberts.
Arriving on the international scene with five wickets on debut against India at the MCG in the 1999 Boxing Day Test, Lee became a part of an Australian side midway through the process of bringing all Test match opponents to heel.
With his blond locks, million dollar grin and speedy approach, Lee was commonly likened to a Ferrari, the luxury item a successful team could afford to use for his shock value alongside that most dependable duo of McGrath and Shane Warne.
Many of Lee’s Test wickets came against opponents with little hope of beating an all-powerful Australian team, their techniques softened up by pressure.
His debut Test was the sixth in a record sequence of 16 consecutive victories under the captaincy of Steve Waugh.
In those early matches Lee was able to exploit the slipstream effect of the rest of the attack, while Waugh delighted in seeing him make opposition players hop around.
Lee’s fallibility as a bowler related to a flat trajectory and straight-forward action that made the ball relatively comfortable to see and hit when a batsman was in good touch, especially once the outswing of his first two or three overs with the new ball had dissipated.
These deficiencies were exploited on more than a few occasions, particularly when Lee was compelled by injury or retirements to lead the attack.
Over time, including a 12-month period as the perpetual 12th man from 2004-05, Lee was able to develop his skills to become a more complete fast bowler.
From the end of the 2005 Ashes series to the start of the 2008 Test tour of India he was at his peak, pouching 128 wickets at 25.23 in 25 matches.
He went to the subcontinent that year as arguably the finest paceman in the world, but a barren tour was compounded by illness and weight loss, beginning the downward spiral that ended in retirement this week.
What is not in dispute about Lee is that he maintained such heights of pace for longer than anyone, in the face of so many injuries.
As his long-time pace partner Gillespie put it: “I don’t think the public would appreciate how much pain he bowled in.”
AUSTRALIA’S LEADING TEST WICKET TAKERS
Player Matches Wickets Avg
Shane Warne 145 708 25.41
Glenn McGrath 124 563 21.64
Dennis Lillee 70 355 23.92
Brett Lee 76 310 30.81
Craig McDermott 71 291 28.63
Jason Gillespie 71 259 26.13
Richie Benaud 63 248 27.03
Garth McKenzie 60 246 29.78
Ray Lindwall 61 228 23.03
Clarrie Grimmett 37 216 24.21
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