JOIN USBattling a lower side strain, Lee missed Monday’s training session and had to be rushed to a hospital here for scans.
Lee stretched himself in the warm-up match against England Lions in Worcester, taking six for 76 in that game.
“He has a sore left rib, but we won’t know the extent of it until the scans are back,” an Australian team spokesman said. “We’re in a holding pattern until then,” he added.
The news has reached the rival camp and former England captain Kevin Pietersen said Australia would not be the same force without Lee.
“He is a huge, huge player for Australia,” said Pietersen.
“He brings experience in the dressing room and also the intimidation he has on batsmen around the world because he is one of the fastest bowlers in the world. He has got that intimidating factor about him. It is a great loss to them if he doesn’t play,” Pietersen said.
Meanwhile, Lee has revealed that he managed to get devastating reverse swing against England Lions after employing an Indian strategy.
Lee bagged six wickets against the Lions which helped him claim a place in the Ashes side before injury forced him out of the first two Tests.
“Normally in Australia with greener wickets and greener outfields we tend to try to bowl seam up for the first 20 or 30 overs and then see what happens after that. Over here in England and in a place like the subcontinent, it is a little bit different,” Lee said.
“We thought the first three or four overs, we would just see if the ball swings, but it didn’t swing a lot.
So then we changed it around and bowled a bit across the seam to try to scuff it up and it started to go (reverse) after about 10 or 12 overs.”