Brett Lee confident of returning to Australian XI

Fast bowler Brett Lee, who retired from Test cricket to prolong his ODI and Twenty20 career, is confident of returning to the Australian XI before the start of the T20 Wolrd Cup in the West Indies once he was fully fit.

The question remains who exactly Lee will replace in the Caribbean for the World Twenty20 in May.

Australia's new-look attack of Shaun Tait, Dirk Nannes, Doug Bollinger, Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris have performed well this summer and it will be hard to replace them with Lee.

Lee, however, was confident he could return to the starting XI once he was fully fit.

"The only thing I can worry about is getting my elbow right and my fitness back to the level it is at now and what I'm really happy with," said Lee, whose elbow injury has sidelined him since the end of October.

"I want to get out there and enjoy my cricket. And if I can bowl the way I did towards the end of last year, hopefully I shouldn't have a problem," the Daily Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

Twenty20 captain Michael Clarke said before flying out to New Zealand: "His statistics don't lie in all three forms. He's a wonderful player and has been for a long time for Australia, so if he's fully fit I'm sure he'll make his way back into any form of the game."

Cricket NSW chief executive David Gilbert said Lee had always responded to tough times.