Broad eyes World Cup comeback

STUART BROAD is on a mission to prove he has a one-day future with England and is ‘plotting’ a route back in time for the next World Cup. Broad was disappointed to be left out of England’s squad to face Sri Lanka in five ODIs and a Twenty20 and wants to prove he is ready to return to white-ball cricket. ‘I have to carefully plot how to do it and the only way I’ll get back is by playing white-ball cricket,’ said Broad, who is No 3 in the world Test rankings. ‘It’s tricky. I haven’t played any limited-overs stuff. I saw a quote saying this squad had been picked on merit and I can’t argue with that because it’s not as if I’ve gone out there and taken a certain amount of white-ball wickets. I’m going to have to find a way to do that. ‘I’m going to look at scheduling, whether it’s home or abroad, to try to play some white-ball cricket and there might be a decent opportunity after Christmas because there’s not a lot of Test cricket then until I think July. ‘If I have a belting six weeks of 50-over cricket at the start of next season people might say, “Actually this bloke can bowl with the white ball. He has got a hundred-odd (121) ODIs behind him and he could still be in the frame”.’ Broad was left out of the one-day and Twenty20 sides after the disastrous World Cup at the start of last year but briefly returned as a replacement for Steven Finn in South Africa last winter. ‘It was awesome to be involved in the one-day squad in South Africa and see the exciting group we now have,’ said Broad.