Broad: Priority for England is short-term goals
➤ Bowler says series wins key this summer during pandemic ➤ Old guard may be forced out if selectors look ahead to Ashes
The first thing that Stuart Broad noticed about England’s sanitised new world was the amount of work which had gone into making the Ageas Bowl at Southampton safe and biosecure. The second was the intensity which was going into training for England’s first Test against West Indies on Wednesday week.
Thirty players are competing for 11 places and seldom, if ever, have England had such a wealth of fast – outright fast – bowlers, in addition to the fast-medium seam-and-swing bowlers who have always characterised English cricket. But it is the outright fast bowlers who have won England’s few Ashes series in Australia.
Jofra Archer, now his right elbow is reported to be healed, Mark Wood and Olly Stone are members of that 90mph club to which Australia’s Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc belong. If England can regularly put two of their trio into the field in Australia, their chance of regaining the Ashes in 18 months’ time soars from small to significant.
The question for Ed Smith, the chief selector, James Taylor, the second selector, and Chris Silverwood,
the head coach – with Joe Root inked in as captain for Australia – is their priority in light of Covid-19. Everything had been geared to regaining the Ashes but now England’s cricketers are highly vulnerable, not having raised a bat in anger since March, and could lose their three-test series this summer against both West Indies and Pakistan.
If winning the first Test against West Indies is the priority, England would open their bowling with James Anderson and Broad. If the priority is Australia, it is time to move on, from both of them, and invest time in those outright fast bowlers – and in fresh fast-medium bowlers too, such as Ollie Robinson, who excelled in the unofficial Test against Australia A in Melbourne last winter.
Broad, naturally, as a master of his craft and longevity, sees winning this summer as the priority. “We’re in a position now that we’ve almost got to go for short-term goals instead of looking ahead, and make sure we do our job in the business this summer. Because we’ve got to look after each other as players in this environment as well.
“It does feel a bit strange, and if players go through tricky times while in this biosecure environment you can’t escape the cricket at all, mentally. If you nick off first ball, you’re then eating dinner overlooking the pitch that you’ve just nicked off on. We’ve got to make sure, as a group of players, that we don’t look too far ahead at future series, we get it right now. If we get this wrong then we could lose these series against two very good teams.
“We’ve almost got to forget about the long-term right now, we’ve got to make sure we get our bubble right to be able to perform at Test level because, mentally, if you switch off at all at this level, it gets you, and we’ve got to adjust to the conditions we’re living in to be able to perform at our best.”
It makes a persuasive argument, to keep the old guard. England’s selectors nevertheless should surely be moving on. Anderson and Broad could not stop England losing 4-0 last time in Australia, could not make the most of prime bowling conditions in the Test at Adelaide when Root sent Australia in, so why would they triumph four years later when deep into their thirties?
Broad admitted that he had been prone to “floating along” on quiet days in Test cricket. In his past 47 Tests, since his last golden spell against South Africa in Johannesburg
in early 2016, Broad has taken 152 wickets. His average has gone down to 28.17 because he has been so economical, but little more than three wickets per Test – or a wicket every 10 overs – is insufficient for a new-ball strike bowler.
He said: “I know that I perform at my best as a player when the game is at its most exciting and when the game needs changing. Maybe I have to pick more of a battle with the opposition and bring my dad into things a bit more!”
His father, Chris, is likely to be the match referee for this series – being the only Englishman of the seven on the international panel – as the International Cricket Council seeks to minimise travelling.