Bone-breaker Lee continues to defy the statistics

Statistically, Brett Lee does not deserve a place in Australia's team for the third Test against England on Thursday.

Bowling averages, however, make no reference to the inflicting of fractured bones and shattered confidence.

Lee, widely regarded as the fastest bowler in the world, has taken just four wickets in the Ashes series to date, at a less-than-flattering 48.75 runs apiece.

They were all good wickets, though -- Mark Butcher, Ian Ward, Mark Ramprakash and England's top batsman Graham Thorpe.

And his one broken bone was also to be prized, the delivery smashing into Thorpe's hand and putting him out of the third Test.

It is a measure of the aura surrounding Lee that he remains an integral part of the side.

The blond-haired paceman, put simply, unsettles batsmen with the whiff of burning leather.

While Glenn McGrath offers unerring off-stump accuracy, Jason Gillespie jagged movement off the seam and Shane Warne an assortment of leg-spin, Lee deals in pure pace.

Australia captain Steve Waugh said on Wednesday: "He's getting better with every match...I think he will be at his peak for the fourth Test at Headingley."

Lee's stock ball, when he is fully fit, is timed at around 140kph. His quickest was reportedly registered at 156, in a one-dayer in Johannesburg.

The fastest ball ever bowled is attributed to Australia's former quick Jeff Thomson, a 160.4kph (99.5mph) bullet fired in Melbourne in 1975.

"It would be no surprise at all if Brett shatters the record. He...has pace to burn," according to former Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee.

Lee was short of the stuff at the start of the tour, however.

The 24-year-old younger brother of international all-rounder Shane Lee had just returned from elbow surgery and was lacking the zip upon which his bowling relies.

EXPENSIVE SPELL

Surprisingly selected to play against Pakistan in a triangular one-day tournament when barely fit, he took one for 85 in 10 overs, the most expensive spell by an Australian in one-day history. His last four overs went for 48.

He went into the first Test with a bruised ankle -- no wicket for 71 in 12 overs in the first innings -- and a sore rib in the second.

Lee, however, who took 46 wickets in his first nine Tests at 18.91, is now fit and beginning to rediscover his rhythm, as Hampshire discovered on Monday when he took three for 17 off seven lively overs.

His inclusion for the third Test at Trent Bridge on Wednesday will have disappointed 11 Englishmen -- and one Australian.

That Australian is Lee's chief rival in the tour squad, Damien Fleming.

He has taken 14 wickets at 21.64 in the tour matches to date, hardly putting a foot wrong but barely warranting a mention.

Mail Cricket Editor