A month before Ricky Ponting arrives in India with his team for an ODI series, Zaheer Khan -- after his dazzling display in England -- has become a subject of research for the Australians, revealed their pace spearhead Brett Lee.
The Australians will be in India for playing seven ODIs starting September 29 and Lee felt Zaheer would be a big threat to their aim of a series sweep. "We have been watching him very closely and I must say that he has done amazingly well in England. In fact, we are doing a bit of research on him," Lee, who is in the capital to launch the new watch collection of Timex, told reporters on Tuesday.
Zaheer won the Man of the Series award in the recently concluded Test series after picking up 16 wickets. "I am very impressed with his determination. He has tremendous control over the ball, and it looks he has worked very hard after being on the sidelines for some time.
"But ultimately it's all about putting the ball into the right areas and he has been doing it with consistency. Considering that he was not even in the team till some months ago, his comeback is just great."
Lee, who will return to the field in next month's Twenty20 World Championship after being sidelined by an ankle injury in February, said although the stars of the Indian team were now on the wrong side of 30's, they would still be a handful for the Aussies. "I don't think that age would have any effect on the likes of (Sachin) Tendulkar, (Sourav) Ganguly, (Rahul) Dravid or V V S Laxman. These guys never let anything affect them when they are playing against us.
"They have this knack of coming up with their best when they play Australia. We'll have to be wary of that," he said.
On the upcoming Twenty20 World Championship, Lee felt South Africa and England would start favourites as these sides have had the most experience of playing the shortest form of the game. "South Africa and England are favourites because they are more experienced. I think we also have good chance but we have not been exposed to Twenty20 much and it would be a challenge adapting to the format," he said.
"And we are taking the whole thing very seriously. After all, it is a world championship. As a bowler, I know it would be hard on me but I am preparing myself. I think 40 runs in four overs shouldn't be too bad," he said.
Despite Twenty20 being hard on the bowlers, Lee said he was all for the format as it would popularise the game. "Twenty20 has lot of merit. It lasts barely four hours. It is entertaining for the crowd and children are not going to get sunburn if they turn up at the stadium," he quipped.
Lee sidestepped queries on the upcoming Indian Cricket League and said only time would tell whether it would prove to be good for the game in India. "I have been reading about ICL in the papers. But I have got nothing to do with. As far as I am concerned, I am happy playing for Australia," he said.
About his Bollywood dreams, Lee said although he has received a couple of offers but the debut would have to wait as he was focused on cricket for now. "Bollywood will happen one day. I want to make my debut with Amitabh Bachchan but there is still some time before that happens," he said.
