Tait replaces Lee for the Sri Lankan Tour
H e
didn't have a passport, hasn't been overseas before and even his father thought
Andy Bichel was a more likely candidate. But 21-year-old South Australian
paceman Shaun Tait is packing his bags after his shock call-up to join the
Australian cricket team on its Test tour of Sri Lanka. Tait will leave Adelaide
tomorrow to replace Brett Lee, who has returned to Australia with an ankle
injury.
The Redbacks speedster
has played just 14 first-class matches, taking 43 wickets an an average of
26.56. But this season he grabbed 30 wickets at 28.66, including a domestic
one-day haul of 8-43 and was rewarded with selection in the Australia A side.
Tait said today when he heard Lee was coming home, it didn't even occur to him
that he might be a replacement.
More likely, in his
mind, were the likes of Nathan Bracken, Bichel or the returning Glen McGrath.
That soon changed when he took the call from chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns
at his Adelaide Hills home last night and now he just wants to learn from the
experience. "Whether I play or not, it's just going to be a good
experience," Tait said.
"If I do play, it
will be a tough place to start your international career. "But I think
that's a good thing. If you get hardened in your first game, it will hopefully
set you up for the rest of your career." Tait said he thought he went
through something of a form slump about a month ago but believed got his season
back on track in the final weeks. Favoured to replace Lee because of his
superior pace, he said he was not about to change what had worked so far - just
go out to try to bowl fast.
"If I do get a
shot over there, I'll just keep doing what I've been doing and I'm sure they'll
allow me to do that," he said. That philosophy appeared to have the support
of Hohns, who said Tait had a bit more pace than his rivals. "Shaun Tait is
a quality young quick who has impressed us with his raw pace over the summer. We
have selected him specifically as a like-replacement for Brett Lee, who was the
quickest bowler in our touring line-up," Hohns said today.
Before exiting the
Australian camp in Galle, Lee said he was weighing up his options after his
latest setback. "I'll sit down with (captain) Ricky Ponting when we get
back to Australia and go through a few things with regard to my workload,"
Lee said. "We need to work out how much they want me to bowl per day and
what type of role they want me to play.
"Whether they
want me to go in and bowl four overs flat out, have a rest and come back and
bowl another four overs, and maybe only bowl 15 overs a day, or whether they
want me to be more of a stock bowler and bowl 25 overs over a day." Lee's
injury is to the same ankle which was operated on to remove bone spurs and
restricted him during the Australian summer.
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