Brett Lee is today set to be recalled to international cricket for the game's first Twenty20 World Cup.
Lee is expected to be chosen in a 15-man squad for the South African tournament hosted by Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town from September 11-24.
The selectors will meet via a telephone hook-up today to choose the Twenty20 squad and a 14-man outfit for an eight-match one-day series against India in India which follows it.
The squads are expected to be announced today or on Monday.
Lee believes he has fully recovered from off-season surgery on his left ankle which cost him a place in Australia's victorious World Cup squad in the West Indies in April.
"I'm 100 per cent," Lee said yesterday.
Australia is also likely to pick fast bowling tearaway Shaun Tait, though he may need to prove his fitness from recent elbow surgery before his place is confirmed.
The prospect of Tait and Lee being united with the new ball in both forms of the game is looming as a mouth-watering prospect for cricket fans this summer in home series against Sri Lanka and India.
The two squads are likely to be stocked with familiar names from Australia's World Cup squad with Lee's return filling the vacancy left by Glenn McGrath's retirement after the World Cup.
The scheduling of the Twenty20 World Cup has been criticised for prematurely legitimising a form of the game that players believe should retain a carnival feel.
But the International Cricket Council is aware of attempts by Indian and West Indian entrepreneurs such as Antiguan-based Texan millionaire Alan Sandford to cash in on the game's soar- ing popularity and hold break- away competitions.
The Australian squads will assemble under new coach Tim Nielsen in Brisbane late next month.
- ROBERT CRADDOCK