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'I think my pace has increased'
Australian fast bowler Brett Lee is looking forward to joining forces with fellow fast bowler Shaun Tait to unleash the most terrifying pace attack competing in the upcoming World Cup.
Lee believes that he and Tait are primed to peak as Australia tries to win a fourth successive World Cup title.
"I think my pace has increased over the last two weeks with each game. I consistently hit a couple of 150s [km/h] in some pretty hot weather and I was pretty happy with that," the Age quoted Lee, as saying.
"You know when you're bowling fast. It comes from your body getting used to it all again and I've experienced that playing for NSW, Wellington [in the New Zealand Twenty20 competition] and for Australia again by backing up after every day's play and knowing the pace is back again to where it was," he added.
'I'm really enjoying bowling at the other end with Shaun'
Lee further predicted that Tait would generate speeds of 160km/h during the two-month tournament.
"He (Tait) really is a once-in-a-lifetime bowler. The pace he generates is incredible.
"I'm really enjoying bowling at the other end with Shaun. He's a great Aussie who really puts in, but the pace he bowls at, well, that's another world," Lee said.
"I can definitely see him hitting 160km/h during the World Cup," he added.
Australia's first game of the tournament is against Zimbabwe on February 21.
Chappell backs Lee
Meanwhile, former Australian Test skippers Greg Chappell and Steve Waugh have both rated fast bowler Brett Lee as the spiritual leader and lynchpin of Australia's World Cup attack after his rousing return to form from a 15-month injury lay-off.
"He has modified his bowling, added variety, and I think he is a more complete bowler that any stage in his career," news.com.au quoted Chappell, as saying of the 34-year-old.
He added: "He is still able to bowl at a speed that is up there with the very fastest but with a control and variation that hasn't been part of his armoury before."
'Lee will be an impact player'
Waugh described Lee as Australia's World Cup talisman.
"Lee will be my impact player.
"He has amazing resilience, he is bowling back at 150km/h and he loves touring India," Waugh said.
Lee has scripted a perfect comeback
Lee succumbed to elbow surgery in November 2009, having broken down during Australia's one-day tour of India.
A broken thumb ended hopes of an Indian Premier League comeback last year, then a forearm strain sidelined him from Australia's World Twenty20 campaign in the Caribbean.
Lesser men wouldn't have rebounded bigger, stronger and wiser, noted Chappell, who labelled Lee's riposte "the feel-good story" of the summer....
Lee is the leading wicket-taker, with 11 at an average 24, in a comeback tournament which Australia won 6-1 against England.