Brett Lee's debut in International Cricket

Brett Lee steaming in

One of the fastest bowlers to have graced the field, Brett Lee’s debut was a highly successful one and it came against India during their disastrous 1999-00 tour of Australia. The occasion was huge as it was the boxing day Test match and a 21 year old youngster with blonde hair unleashed himself against the Indian batsmen. Before that he made a useful 27 lower down the order, something which he did regularly during the course of his career. Lee picked up the wickets of Ramesh and Dravid first up and then picked up three more towards the end, thus picking up a five wicket haul in his debut. In the second innings, he picked up two more wickets ensuring a comfortable victory for his team.

He first began playing first grade cricket at the age of 16 and impressed one and all with his raw pace. Later on he even made it to the Australian U-19 team and on his sheffield shield debut he picked up three wickets. A few days after his Test debut, he immediately played his first ODI match in a losing cause against Pakistan. He couldn’t pick up a wicket and had given 39 runs in his ten overs. Throughout his career, he never compromised on pace, and despite getting sidelined by injuries, he came back strong. At one point in his career, he even clocked close to 100 miles per hour and his final Test was also a boxing day Test at the same MCG.

He ended his Test career with 310 wickets that included ten five wicket hauls. He formed a potent attack with Glenn Mcgrath and Jason Gillespie and was one of the main reasons for Australia’s dominance in that period. His premature Test retirement was a decision that he took to prolong his ODI career and finally he retired in July 2012 after having picked up a massive 380 wickets in just 221 appearances. He was part of the side that won the 2003 World Cup in South Africa and also became the first ever bowler to pick up a hat-trick in a T20 international. His brother Shane Lee has also represented Australia.