At the age of 36, Broad demonstrated his enduring qualities as a strike bowler with five first-innings wickets in England’s ten-wicket win over Ireland at Lord’s last week. However, with James Anderson, Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood all in the running for recalls at Edgbaston, he knows there is no guarantee that he’s done enough to be in the starting line-up for the series opener next week.
Such a prospect would have left Broad furious in recent years. Against West Indies in 2020, he declared himself “frustrated, angry and gutted” after being omitted for the series opener at the Ageas Bowl, despite having been England’s leading wicket-taker over the previous two years, an achievement that had led him to believe he was in possession of “the shirt”.
This time, however, with England boasting a record of 11 wins from 13 Tests under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, Broad says he has absolute faith in their methods and management, and will have no complaints if they decide to hold him back for a later date in the campaign.
“I’m just flowing around at the moment,” Broad said, aptly enough, during a sponsor’s event for Laithwaites wine at Lord’s. “I feel really happy with how my cricket is, how life is. I feel fit, I feel fresh. Whether I play at Edgbaston, whether I play at Lord’s, Headingley … I don’t mind, I play really well at all of them.
“I love playing against Australia, and whether that’s the first Test, the fifth Test, the third … I’m happy to try and strike whenever I get the chance. I think ultimately as a team we’re going to need every bowler, and we’re going to need to take 100 wickets to win the Ashes. But my ultimate aim is to be fit and fresh and playing at The Oval, because that’s the fifth, and that means I’ve done my job for the group.”
“At Brisbane I was raging. So yeah, I’ve definitely changed. And in a good way. I see my role as striking when I get the chance but also, we won’t be having interviews like the Ageas Bowl. I quite enjoy doing that but …”
As it happens, Broad bounced back after that Ageas Bowl snub with 16 wickets in the remaining two Tests against West Indies, including a ten-for in the series decider at Old Trafford. “Maybe that’ll be the tactic,” he joked. “Leave me out at Edgbaston so I fire up at Lord’s! But I’m very comfortable. I’m just really enjoying the environment.
“The communication’s really clear, that we’re going to need everyone. It doesn’t feel like a closed shop. It’s a really addictive environment to be around, and we’re just happy for everyone’s success. So ultimately, if I only play one game and we lift the urn at The Oval, that’s a massive tick in England cricket’s box. It’s not about me, it’s about the collective. But I think I’ll play more than one …”
Broad has already played ten more Tests than he might have envisaged 13 months ago, when he and Anderson were axed in the wake of England’s 4-0 Ashes loss. But the fact that England have turned their fortunes around with more or less the same set of core players is proof not only of the wizardry of the so-called Bazball mindset, but that Broad himself was right in his insistence about living in the now.
“We had to change that habit of, every four years, going to the Ashes and if we lose it, tear it up and new people come in and start the process again,” he said. “It was just a cycle repeating too often.
“You can’t take the emphasis off the Ashes because it’s our biggest series. You only have to be driving through service stations in the last year and it’s ‘come on guys, beat Australia’ – our country has a love affair with Ashes cricket, but as an organisation we had to get our mindset away from personnel losing their jobs if results didn’t go the way you want them to.
“I think we have lived in a really healthy way in the last 12 months,” he added. “The Ashes was only mentioned for the first time in the post-match debrief against Ireland, and it was ‘it doesn’t matter what the results as long as we stick to how we play’. As long as we have kids watching and saying ‘wow that’s incredible’, then we have done our jobs.”
Stuart Broad was speaking at the launch of wine merchant Laithwaites’ partnership with England cricket. For exclusive offers on great wines this summer, visit laithwaites.co.uk
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
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