Australia’s fast-bowling legend Brett Lee believes young tearaway pacer Lance Morris reminds him a lot of the time when current Australia skipper Pat Cummins was a youngster.
Last year, Morris won the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year at the Australian Cricket Awards and has now earned a call-up to Australia’s Test squad for the first Test against Pakistan at Perth starting from December 14.
“He actually reminds a lot of a young Pat Cummins. That’s a massive rap because ‘Cummo’ first came & burst on the scene back when he was about 17 years of age as the boy from Penrith with big blue eyes who was excited to bowl fast. He was like a sponge.”
“With the real limited time I’ve had the chance to speak to Lance, it’s just been that he’s just been excited about cricket, he understands his game. He’s got a very switched-on brain, as most fast bowlers do, I might add (laughs).”
“I’m super impressed, he’s got a big career ahead of him. What’s going to happen this year though? I’m not sure, because there’s three guys ahead of him that are doing a great job,” said Lee at Fox Cricket’s season launch event.
Though Morris is highly-talented Lee thinks he will have to bide his time as Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc are the first-choice fast-bowlers for head coach Andrew McDonald in the upcoming international men’s summer in Australia.
“Pace is something that I love watching with these young kids coming through. But certainly, when you get to over that 140 km/h barrier, there’s no reason with his action, his temperament, his technique, he’s young and he’s excited that he can’t go up to that 150 km/h bracket.”
“He needs to just keep taking wickets. On the other side of the coin though you’ve got three experienced campaigners in Starc, Cummins and Hazelwood that have done the business for Australia. You have to bide your time. It was like when I was trying to break in the Australian cricket team, you’ve got to take wickets and bowl quick.”
“Youth is what it’s about, but experience as well is very important. Mitchell Starc – when he’s on, he’s the world’s best and he swings the ball back. Pat Cummins is the golden child like David Beckham, he gets the ball in his hand, and he just creates opportunities.”
“Then Hazelwood is McGrath-like, that human metronome. There’s three guys that are in the prime and would be pretty hard to knock off,” concluded Lee.
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