What a massive blow this is for Australia. Brett Lee has injured a side muscle, and could miss either one Test, or all five. With all of the talk about reverse swing being a factor at Cardiff, and Lee being about the only Aussie who showed mastery of it in the practise match against England Lions, this creates a huge problem for Australia. The balance of the team is now out, and it’s going to make it tough for them to win. A few months ago the Australian supporters wouldn’t have though twice about losing Lee, as he was well off his best. But now he’s looking really good again, and, well, with him out Australia’s in trouble.
I expect they’ll replace Lee with Ben Hilfenhaus rather than Nathan Hauritz, though that will depend on what they see the pitch doing when the Australian selectors take a look at it on Wednesday morning.
For England, this will give them a pretty big boost. They would have been concerned by Lee’s performance at Worcester, but now they’ll be thinking that they’ll have a much easier time of it. And they probably will.
