Back to work early

Determined to bowl his way out of the slump, Brett Lee was the first cricketer from either side to start training ahead of the third Test which begins at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Wednesday.

Lee arrived at the Kotla on Friday afternoon alongwith bowling coach Troy Cooley. Away from the prying media and flashbulbs, he did a bit of stretching, before bowling for close to two hours at the nets. The Australian pace attack, on which the team relies on so heavily, has been comprehensively out-bowled by the Indian quicks. And after attempts to hire Manoj Prabhakar to help them get some reverse swing failed, the visitors, according to reports appearing Down Under, are hoping to get Lee to crank up the pace.

The 32-year-old, who has had a forgettable outing in the series so far, is working on an intensive training programme that includes weights, running and bowling. The idea is to get him to bowl as fast as he used to.

Rusty and slow

“Because he’s been a bit underdone, he’s been bowling a bit at half and three-quarter pace at training, concentrating on his technique, trying to do everything right,” Ponting was quoted as saying by The Australian. “But by doing that he’s probably taught himself to bowl slow. For the next week, when he bowls at training, he’ll be bowling off his long run to train that back into his body again,” he said.

The training prgramme has reportedly been devised by the team’s fitness advisor, Stuart Karppinen, and will require Lee to undergo 11 varied sessions. “We want to mimic the movements that happen when he bowls,” Karppinen has been quoted as saying. “We’re trying to promote speed.”

During the bowling sessions Lee will be allowed more time to recover so that he can concentrate solely on speed. “He’s at 95 per cent and bowling in the mid-140s but we want him to be able to crank that up,” added Karppinen.

“We need him bowling very well,” Ponting had said in Mohali, where the two even had a little on-field altercation. “He’s the guy everyone in our attack looks up to. He’s a senior player in the team and he’s led the attack brilliantly in the last 12 or 18 months. The rest of our bowling attack really fits in around what he does.”

There’s no doubt that Lee has been ineffective on this trip so far, picking up only four wickets at an average of 59.25. But it remains to be seen if pace alone will solve his, and the Australian team’s, problems.