One-day International career
Lee bowling against Pakistan at Lord's, 2004-09-04
In One-day Internationals Lee is widely regarded as one of the world's finest and most feared bowlers, he was ranked by the ICC as the No. 1 ODI bowler in January 2006and has been ranked among the top ten ODI bowlers since the start of 2003. He has a wide array of deliveries including a dangerous in-swinging yorker. His bowling strike rate of around 30 puts him amongst the most incisive in this form of the game. He also has a One-day International hat-trick to his name, achieved in the 2003 World Cup against Kenya. Lee was the first Australian and fourth bowler to ever achieve this feat in World Cup history.
In the matches Australia played in the 2005-06 triangular one day series, Lee gave a display of his useful batting abilities by making 57 in the second game in a 100 run partnership with Michael Hussey to pull Australia out of a middle order collapse. However, he is yet to consistently contribute with his batting, and his current ICC ranking hovers around the 90–100 region.
Lee finished the series with 15 wickets, the third highest tally behind Nathan Bracken and Muttiah Muralitharan.
While Lee's average and strike rate in ODIs rank him as one of the best strike bowlers in ODI history, he can still be erratic occasionally, as shown by his relatively high economy rate.
Lee also has the ability to take wickets very early in the innings, often removing batsmen in the first over of the innings. The delivery he bowled to Marvan Atapattu in the semi-final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, reached 160.1 km/h (99.5 mph).
Batting
Lee's batting has always shown potential and in recent times has been improving, averaging just over twenty in both forms of international cricket in the last two years. He has said that he would like to become an all rounder though it is not a main priority. During the 2005 Ashes series, Lee had numerous defiant innings, and showed promise as a batsman. Lee's aggressive style and strong physique often yields many sixes, including one six which flew out of the Gabba (Brisbane) during a Test match against the West Indies in 2005, billed as the biggest six ever hit at that ground.On 2 April 2006, Lee hit his highest Test score of 64 in 68 balls against South Africa at Johannesburg. His previous highest score in Tests was 62 not out which he made against the West Indies in 2000 at the Gabba. Lee nearly surpassed this score on 3 January 2008 against India when he made 59 off 121 balls. Lee had also once again nearly surpassed his highest test score when he had made 63 not out, but unfortunately Ricky Ponting had declared the innings in the 2nd test against the West Indies. As a result of this, he fell one run short of his highest test score.
Lee's highest score in ODI matches is 57 against South Africa at the Gabba in January 2006 with his previous best being 51 against South Africa in 2002.
Cricket World Cup 2003
During the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Brett Lee was one of the leading performers for Australia. He concluded the tournament with 22 wickets off 83.1 overs at an average of 17.90 finishing second to Sri Lankan left-arm fastbowler Chaminda Vaas who took 23 wickets during that tournament. Lee also had a third leading strike-rate of 22.68 behind West Indian fast bowler Vasbert Drakes and Australian counterpart Andrew Bichel who topped the strike-rates with 19.43 and 21.37 respectively.Lee earned six of his 22 wickets during the group stage, 11 wickets during the Super-six stage, 3 from the semi-final and 2 wickets from the final. He took one five wicket haul, 5 for 42, during this World Cup which was against the Australians' Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand during their super-six encounter at Port Elizabeth. He also earned his first international hat-trick with figures of 3 for 14 against Kenya during the last match of the super-six stage.
Brett Lee peaked during this tournament in terms of his bowling speed. It was at this world cup Lee bowled his previous fastest recorded delivery of 160.7km/h against England at Port Elizabeth during their group match.
Retirement from Tests
In February 2010, Lee retired from Test cricket in a bid to prolong his career in the limited-overs department. He had been repeatedly injured and had not played a Test since December 2008. He played 76 Tests taking 310 wickets. Australian fast bowling great Dennis Lillee paid tribute to him saying "Brett is going to go down as one of the great all-time express bowlers in the world ... 150-plus km/h puts a huge strain on the body and it can only take so much. For him to play 76 Tests and 300-odd wickets doing what he does is a credit to him."His friend, English cricketer, Andrew Flintoff suggested him to take retirement from Test Cricket in order to extend his ODI and T20 career.
