THE mental and physical pain Brett Lee has inflicted on New Zealand's hapless batsmen in the one-day series has all but guaranteed his return from a 14-month Test cricket exile.
So dominant and intimidating has Lee been in the first three matches of this five-game series – in which Australia hold a 3-0 lead – the national selectors will be hard pressed to justify his ongoing exclusion.
That represents yet another tough break for Lee's fellow paceman Michael Kasprowicz, who seems set to make way despite being one of Australia's best-performed Test and one-day bowlers over the past year.
But the simple truth is that Lee is one of a small group of bowlers in world cricket able to bowl with control in excess of 150km/h.
The Kiwi batsmen have shown they are utterly ill-equipped to deal with genuine pace, and there is a feeling within Australian cricket that an in-form and confident Lee would be equally influential in this year's Ashes battle.
Lee's recent form has been irresistible, regularly reaching speeds of up to 156km/h, swinging the ball at pace and bowling with rhythm which belies his recent lack of first-class cricket. Lee has taken 7-94 from the first three matches on slow wickets.
He has established a mental hold over Stephen Fleming – the Kiwis' only true world-class batsman – by dismissing him four times in the teams' past five one-day meetings for scores of nought, five, one and one.
In addition, Lee has inflicted mental scarring on other top-order batsmen such as Nathan Astle and Mathew Sinclair, who lost his place in the one-day line-up after a series of failures against the Australian pace attack.
And the hosts' hopes of using highly rated opener Michael Papps in the Test series were immediately dashed when the 25-year-old froze in the face of Lee's hostility and was struck a fearful blow on the helmet during Saturday's one-dayer in Auckland.
Papps retired hurt and spent the evening under observation in hospital, where he was cleared of serious injury.
"In our domestic competition we don't have a lot of pace bowlers operating in the 140s (km/h), let alone the 150km/h area. So it is a big jump," Fleming conceded yesterday.
"He's unsettling and bowling with very good intensity."
Australia's 14-man Test squad for the NZ series will be named on Wednesday.
- ANDREW RAMSEY