Broad relishing the chance to fill the role of public enemy No1
Bowler says ‘abuse’ from Australian fans helps him to play his best, says Scyld Berry in Adelaide
Of all the people lamenting the absence of Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad is right up there. Had Stokes been in Australia, he would have assumed the role of public enemy No1 that Broad held last time.
On the opening day of the last Ashes series in Brisbane, half of the 40,000 crowd roared: “Broad is a w-----!” Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann had called on his countrymen to give Broad hell for not “walking” in the Trent Bridge Test, ignoring that he had faintly edged a catch to the keeper, before it ballooned to slip.
Broad was philosophical on the day when Mitchell Starc took his second hat-trick in one game, and Ryan Harris talked up Australia’s attack as being better than last time – even though Starc’s wickets were mostly tail-enders, and nobody could be so intimidating as Mitchell Johnson at his peak, with Harris himself darting around the new ball in the whitewash of 2013-14.
“If you’re an England cricketer in Australia, wearing the Three Lions, you have to prepare yourself for a bit,” Broad said. “I know it was very much focused on me last time but on that first morning, [Joe] Rooty ran down to the boundary and had everyone singing, ‘Rooty is a ------.’ So everyone has to brace themselves for it.
“It is a great part of the rivalry. When Australia come to England, the stick Mitchell Johnson was getting at Edgbaston was pretty lively, maybe not as abusive but quite lively.
“I came to the Big Bash last year and still got a bit of a boo. It’s as close as we get to being a Premier League footballer playing away from home, being a Manchester United player at Anfield. It’s exciting, it’s a great feeling, it’s not something you’re going to get when you retire.
“Running out on a sports field with X amount of thousand people jeering and cheering – moments you have to remember because it doesn’t last forever. You’re better off getting jeered than nothing. At least if you’re jeered, someone has heard of you or you’ve done something in an Ashes series.”
On the morning of the Brisbane Test last time, the contribution of the local Courier-mail to Australia’s propaganda campaign was to refuse to recognise Broad’s name, or face, or pace, and simply term him “a 27-year-old medium-pacer”.
“I’m sure they’ll have something to get themselves in the headlines again [but] it does feel different already on this trip because the day after we arrived I walked down to breakfast and there was a picture on the back page with me having a selfie with an England fan.
“So actually seeing my face in a paper over here was a new experience. The last time, it was Stuart Fraud. So they are spelling my name right, we’re already on to a winner.”
Instead, Broad has been the butt of English humour, specifically that of his captain in the first week in Perth. “Rooty stuffed me out of sight. There was an Aussie Rules player, I think he was called Nathan Broad, he’d been in a scandal and Rooty put all the papers lined up together just with the ‘Broad in sexting scandal’ headline showing and sent it to me.
“I woke up with five different papers saying ‘Broad in scandal’ – and I thought, ‘Oh no, what have I done?’ Rooty was winding me up. But he was called ‘Average Joe’ the next day so it came back to bite him.”
In comparing Australia’s pace attack with England’s, Broad recognises their opponents are faster but cites the advice from England’s new bowling coach Shane Bond.
“We’re not going to blast the Australians out, we don’t have a Brett Lee-type bowler who can bowl 95mph reverse-swinging yorkers. We have to do what we do.
“I think you have to adjust to the lengths a bit. If you bowl that slightly fuller length you get belted, as we found out at the Waca the other day. I think Shane Bond said the length at the Gabba is
6.1 metres and he’s been putting a
yellow marker at the side in our nets and that’s the perfect length to get the most movement.
“We had a theory in 2015-16 in South Africa that when a new batsman came in, we’d swarm them for the first 15 balls so, if they make any mistake, they’re out. I would like to do similar again. If any world-class batsman is going to make a mistake, it will be in the first 20 minutes. Then settle into a more defensive field.
“If I think too much about my bowling, I don’t class myself as a very good bowler. If I get into a battle with the batsman, things happen quite naturally for me. The great thing about Ashes cricket is that you have to get in a battle.”
Broad also said that he had worked on straightening his run-up and getting his wrist behind the ball. As a result, he said, “I feel like my time is coming”
– and England, to compete, will need one of those magic spells Broad has produced in Ashes series at home.