ASHES 2019: "Reinvented" Stuart Broad feeling good about himself 

Broad took 23 wickets in five Tests to rejuvenate his career with this Ashes.

Stuart Broad | Getty

From being deemed as a player on decline, Stuart Broad ended the Ashes, in his own words, as a "reinvented cricketer with more to offer", and the 33-year-old feels extremely happy about it. 

Broad picked up 23 wickets across five Tests in England's 2-2 drawn series against the arch-rivals, with the ability to never let the team feel the absence of James Anderson and dominance over Aussie opener David Warner being the stand-out features of his overall performance. 

"I've been very pleased with how it has gone this summer. I've gone from being talked about as a diminishing cricketer being eased out to a reinvented cricketer with more to offer. At 33 years old that is a good place to be," Broad, who came out of this season as a rejuvenated individual, was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo

"All the hard work has been worth it. Fate allowed me to have the time during the winter to work on things. In Sri Lanka I didn't play too much and I was able to work on a new run up and stuff like my attacking intent, which has paid dividends. I've not been as attacking in my areas, and making batsmen play as much as I have for many years."

WATCH- David Warner's all seven dismissals at the hands of England's Stuart Broad

More on holding the wood over Warner, Broad, having gotten the dangerous batsman seven out of eight times, said: "I had an added responsibility to try and get their big players out and that's why I did a lot of planning on David Warner and how I might get him out before the series started."

"I had to go fuller at him, I had to try and hit his stumps and I had to try and forget about his outside edge."

"The edges would come but only if I bowled in the right areas consistently rather than searching for the edge of his bat. I never dreamt that I would have the success against him that I've had," he added. 

"Of course that is just in this series. If we put our numbers together over the course of our careers and how much we have played against each other I think they would be quite even."

"He has outdone me in many a series, but this time it went my way and I think it perhaps shows that sometimes planning does work."

Even though the urn was conceded, Broad played his role to perfection by setting the tone up right at the beginning of each Australian innings. The 132-Test-old veteran, hence, reckons this was perhaps his "best summer" in a while. 

"We talk about setting the tone with the new ball and I felt that this has been my best summer for a long time in terms of doing that with the new ball," Broad said. 

"I felt a responsibility to lead that first 10 overs and I've had great energy running in. I felt like the mindset of trying to hit the stumps has really paid off."

"I don't think we could have dreamt of keeping Australia's opening pairs quite so quiet throughout the series so we can class that as a good win for us. We do a lot of planning and preparation to go into these series and our new ball bowling has been a success," he concluded. 

(Inputs from ESPNcricinfo)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 18 Sep, 2019

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