Worcester: Former England pacer Simon Jones believes Australia's Brett Lee will swing the momentum in this year's Ashes series.

Regarded as one of the world's finest proponents of reverse swing, Jones, 30, predicted reverse swing would play a significant part when Cardiff hosts its first Test on Wednesday.

"I played there for 13 years and trust me, it's really not much fun being a fast bowler there, but what it will do is reverse swing," Jones said.

Lee proved he was not ready - at 32 years of age and after five ankle operations - to be put out to pasture and showed that if he misses out with the new ball, as he has done in all three innings of the tour matches so far, he can take the pitch out of the equation and strike back with the old one, summoning searing, late movement that was too much for the Lions' batsmen to handle.

Lee, who was fighting for his place in the Ashes attack, had not been this dangerous since claiming 5-59 against the West Indies in Antigua more than a year ago, and his only bag of five in a Test since then came against New Zealand's brittle batsmen last November.

In between he struggled with form, fitness and illness in India and was overtaken as the leader of the attack by Mitchell Johnson when he broke his foot in the Boxing Day Test.