England’s Stuart Broad ready for fresh start with reworked action

Stuart Broad, England cricket team pacer, has reworked his bowling action heading into the two-match Test series against New Zealand, starting March 22, and is confident of sharing the new ball as well.

Broad had failed miserably as a strike bowler in England’s previous Test series — the Ashes 2017-18 in Australia — wherein he bagged just 11 wickets in five Tests.

In fact, England’s ace bowling pair of Broad and James Anderson had struggled on the bouncy and pace-friendly Australia wickets, finding respite only in the Pink Ball Test at Adelaide.

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While England got busy with their limited-overs assignment with Australia and New Zealand, Broad flew home to fix the issues which he believes were hampering him as a bowler.

Despite England captain Joe Root looking for new-ball options in Mark Wood and Chris Woakes during warm-ups in New Zealand, Broad claims he is ready to remain the first choice.

“I’m really not sure which way we’ll go [in the first Test] ... we’re going to be slightly less rigid in the way we go about things, just to try to create pressure for longer periods of time. There has been no decision made on it. There’s still a chance I could take the new ball,” Broad was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

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“I think my action had fallen into a place where it needed repairing, after bowling so much to left-handers round the wicket — in training and in matches. I’m in a place now where I feel like I can do quite a bit of damage as a bowler again,” he added.

Broad said that time away from top-flight cricket helped him go back to basics. “This period in February was great for me. I loved it, taking it back to the basics, getting away from all the technical side of cricket and just going back to what you did as a kid — trying things, playing with things.

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Acknowledging that he had a poor tour of Australia, Broad said that he has rediscovered his hunger as a bowler.

“You’re just trying to get a feeling back for what cricket is. I’m a ‘feeling’ cricketer, and I’ve got a great hunger to play. I’ve had a tough Ashes tour; I’ve got a lot of hunger to get in this England team, stay in it and have a lot of success,” he said.

Broad added, “That certainly includes the next Ashes series ... at 31, touch wood, I’ve got quite a bit of cricket left in me. I think that was maybe a by-product of my action not being in the best place. It was a tough tour. I didn’t feel like I got much out of those pitches at all, but that can happen when you’re lacking slight confidence in your action.”

Broad, who is one wicket away from 400 Test scalps, expressed that he is proud of what he has achieved so far. “It’s not necessarily just about taking the individual wickets. It’s more the length of time it takes, the dedication ... that you’ve got to put in to be on the cricket field for that long to have the chance of taking 400 wickets,” he added.