Adaptability a key feature : Broad

In what can be termed as a pretty long press conversation with Stuart Broad, the athletic right arm pacer revealed much about the tactical strategies his team used to win over the Kangaroos in the first Ashes Test at Cardiff. He also mentioned how adaptability helped them to a great extent in the last match. He said that it was a fruitful tactic to alter plans on a track that resembled much of the sub-continent conditions.

Speaking about the same, Broad said-“You have to adapt, a lot of our plans went out of the window when we saw the pace of the wicket because there’s no point constantly trying to get someone’s edge when it isn’t going to carry. We had to think on our feet. I didn’t want to waste a bouncer. We brought the stumps into play, it was like the sub-continent.”

Broad was the pick of the fast bowlers in the match at Cardiff, eventually getting five scalps in total, out of which he dismissed Watson in both the innings. He also took the precious wicket of Michael Clarke, dismissing him for the tenth time in his career and making him his most scalped victim. “You always lift yourself when the opposition captain comes in,” Broad said.

Broad also laid a sharp emphasis on his plans in the match and how sticking to those plans along with altering them timely, helped him a lot. He mentioned that, “I’ve been working between series on bowling the fuller length but snapping into it. As a tall bowler you can sometimes get a bit floaty. Once that rhythm clicked I got movement on the ball and caused trouble. Hopefully I can apply that pressure at Lord’s because there is a lot of scope for bowling full here.”

After talking about the affairs of Starc getting injured, he also talked about how his team members contributed altogether to steal a satisfactory win. He said, “That is credit to how the players have played – it’s nice to get that win when everyone contributes. Everyone can walk away from that game feeling like they have contributed.”