Brett Lee may be Australia's lethal weapon

The days of the Indian batsmen running away from fast bowling are long over. The spectacle of zero runs for four wickets (at Leeds in 1952) and six runs for five wickets (at Manchester the same year) are almost half a century old. It is now 40 years ago that Trueman and Statham spearheaded England to a a clean sweep 5-0 victory over India in a Test series. And it is a long time since bowlers like Wesley Hall, Roy Gilchrist and Charlie Griffith cut the Indian batting asunder to help West Indies win ten Tests out of eleven in the fifties and sixties.

Sunil Gavaskar, more than anyone else, showed how pace bowling should be played by a unique blend of courage and technique. The fact that 13 of his 34 centuries were made against the West Indies best illustrates this. Thanks to his pioneering efforts, batsmen who followed were able to play fast bowler better than their predecessors in the fifties and sixties. But now and then vestiges of the plague that hounded Indian batsmen during that period are still seen. Proof of this was clearly in evidence during the tour of West Indies in 1989 and the series against Australia in 1991-92.

If anything, the current tour `Down Under' has already shown that when it comes to successfully encountering fast bowling, the Indian batsmen could still be a dismal failure. Perhaps they do not run away from this mode of attack or back away from it, but they still seem to be distinctly uncomfortable in tackling the likes of Glenn McGrath, Damien Fleming and Michael Kasprowicz. The first Test at Adelaide provided enough proof of this with 13 of the 19 wickets to fall to bowlers being taken by McGrath and Fleming. The nadir came about with Sachin Tendulkar making a serious misjudgement - taking his eye off, ducking and turning his back on a McGrath delivery that did not bounce for him to get hit on the shoulder and for the umpire to declare him out leg before. The sight of the captain, the leading batsman not only in the team but also in the world, doing something daft would no doubt have an adverse effect on the other players and certainly constitutes one reason for the Indian debacle at Adelaide.

Noting the Indian distaste for pace bowling, the Australian selectors have now included young New South Wales tearaway Brett Lee in the team for the second Test at Melbourne. The Indians have already encountered Lee's pace twice on the tour and not with much success. Lee took 3 for 57 and 4 for 77 while playing for NSW on a slow wicket at Sydney earlier this month and then in a one day game he bowled the Australian Prime Minister's team to victory at Canberra with a spell of four for 25. The thought of what he could achieve on the faster and bouncier MCG wicket is enough to cause the Indians sleepless nights.

The 23-year-old Lee is already a pastmaster in creating hype. Rated by Australian captain Steve Waugh as the world's fastest bowler, ahead of even Shoaib Akthar in this aspect, Lee is reported to have said that he is looking forward to having a go at the Indians. ``If I get the chance, I will be sending them down as fast as I can,'' he is quoted as saying. ``I have been chosen to bowl fast. I am certainly not going out there to work on my outswinger or bowl off cutters. I am an attacking bowler. I am not one to sit back and wait for something to happen. I go out and try and make things happen.''

Clearly, in more ways than one, the youngster is following the lead given by predecessors like Dennis Lillee and McGrath, who besides being great fast bowlers also target their foe openly. Indeed Lillee is among Lee's growing list of admirers. ``I have watched Brett closely for the last four years and he is improving all the time,'' the Australian fast bowling great is reported to have said. ``He will be the fastest ever, if he is not already there.''

The younger brother of World Cup all rounder Shane Lee, Brett stunned the Indians with his fiery pace and disconcerting bounce even on the slow wicket at the SCG. By all accounts he is genuinely quick, and this has raised some debate over his action. But the Indian management has disowned any remark in this regard. In fact Indian coach Kapil Dev has said, ``he is young and quick. Let him go out and play. Let us not ruin him by creating a controversy even before he has played his first Test match. Cricket needs bowlers like him.''

Certainly someone like Devang Gandhi could do without him. The Indian opening batsman was beaten by sheer pace in both innings in the match against NSW. Victims of his sizzling pace included Ramesh, Laxman and even Tendulkar. In the Pura Milk Cup competition, Lee has taken 31 wickets in five games at an average of 22.54 and if anything, seems to be peaking, as could be judged from his match winning performance for NSW against Western Australia at the WACA last week. Often during the match, he is reported to have sent the ball sailing over the outstretched hands of the wicketkeeper. One leaping ball had the in form Justin Langer awkwardly playing on to his stumps and he even struck crippling blows to two West Australian batsmen, one of them retiring with a suspected broken forearm.

Ever since he has won the confidence of the Australian selectors - Trevor Hohns, Andrew Hilditch, Allan Border and Geoff Marsh - the Australian media has built up Lee as the one to watch out for. Lee, bowling in tandem with McGrath, can be a fearsome proposition and the duo are being touted about as another Lillee-Thomson. Whether all this is just plain hype or very much a reality will be known only next week. But for the beleaguered Indians, already one down in the series, it is an encounter that they will not be looking forward to eagerly. Kapil has put up a brave front. ``We are ready for him. My batsmen are not afraid of fast bowling. I think it is wrong to think that Indians don't play them well.'' The Melbourne Test will provide the answer to whether the Indians still have some phobia about successfully negotiating fast bowling.