AFTER a six-week tour of the better gymnasiums of India, Brett Lee got his chance today to show the Test selectors he could still fling the leather.
He opened the bowling for New South Wales against the visiting New Zealanders at the Sydney Cricket Ground, seven kilos lighter and pawing at the ground to impress.
He finished with 3-52 from his 16.4 overs - hardly earth-shattering, but enough to remind everyone he is fit and awaiting the selectors' call.
Lee spent the Indian tour getting himself in the best condition of his life, and stripping seven kilos from an already lean frame.
It does not seem to have cost him any pace.
He has endured many frustrations in 2004, and it must have been music to his ears to set some Kiwi stumps rattling today.
Aware that the low, slow SCG wicket was not doing much to help his case, he took the more direct route.
In his second spell he dispatched Hamish Marshall with a yorker and then blasted an in-swinger through the defences of Scott Styris. It was too full to be a yorker, but he clearly beat the acting New Zealand captain for pace.
He returned after tea to wrap up the New Zealand innings for 213 when he went round the wicket and dug one in against the Kiwis' No.11 Chris Martin.
Lee was named yesterday in the Australian team for the first Test against the Black Caps starting in Brisbane next Thursday.
By universal consent, he is destined to carry the drinks again, barring injury to Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie or Michael Kasprowicz.
"He doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. He's just got to go out there and play," Test captain Ricky Ponting, an unabashed Lee admirer, said before the game.
While he happily accepted the compliment, Lee knows his career is stalled and in desperate need of a kick start.
Today was his first appearance in a first class game in Australia since the Sydney Test against India in the New Year, and only his third match at this level in 2004.
He will not have happy memories of his last Sydney performance. He took 4-201 and 0-75 while Tendulkar, Laxman and Co. helped themselves to a variety of batting records and got India within sight of inflicting a rare home series defeat on the world champions.
At times, Lee was barracked by his home crowd, and it clearly hurt.
In the intervening 10 months, he has undergone ankle surgery and come through a lengthy rehabilitation.
He bowled full and reasonably straight today, and while his performance didn't quite knock down the selectors' door, it will have done him no harm.
The Blues' other Test bowler-in-waiting Stuart MacGill made good use of the day, snaring 4-52 and coming close to taking a hat-trick against the lower order.
For the time being, however, Shane Warne and Michael Kasprowicz can sleep soundly in their beds.