England recorded yet another victory over the Australians when they won back the Ashes through a stunning performance from Andrew Flintoff and more so, Stuart Broad, who was announced man of the match during the post match celebrations.
Following Flintoff’s retirement from Test cricket, many will expect Broad to take up the responsibility considering his potential drawing comparisons from the earlier generation when the same was expected from others when Ian Botham retired. Although, Flintoff believes now is not the right time for such expectations he certainly lauds Broad for his potential, “He is playing the most intense cricket against the best team in the world at the highest level at such a young age. When you compare that to a doctor or a surgeon, these people wait until they are 40 or 50 to be the best in their field.
“You are asking a young kid to come along at that age and be the best. So far he is living up to it, but I reckon for the next 10 years we are going to see the best of Stuart Broad. It is unfair to compare him to myself or Botham. Let’s just let him progress and if you do that you will see a very exciting and great career ahead of him. He’s better than me in a lot of ways. He’s not the finished article but he has huge potential. He could bat at number three in the future.”
Broad on the other hand will only concentrate on his cricket and leave all expectations and speculation for the media to play with. He certainly is not under any pressure or at least less than he was before the Ashes.
Come to his decision to avoid the IPL ahead of the Ashes, Broad believes that his decision was “worthwhile” as he managed to play in all of the 5 Tests and help the team win, “The reason I didn’t go was to focus on the Ashes and that really worked out for me.”
He added, “The IPL will sometime in my career help me develop as a Twenty20 cricketer, it’s a great competition and a great spectacle. But it all depends on how I and my body are feeling, and if anyone wants me. To be honest I haven’t looked any further than packing my bags for Belfast, so I don’t know what will happen in the next year.”
Broad’s performance had hit a slag mid way through the series which had also at a point hinted of his substitution. However, he insisted, “I never think about that sort of stuff too much, it’s out of my hands,” Broad insisted.
Broad was certainly unhappy over his lack of performance but also knew the key areas of improvement.
“I wasn’t happy with how I was bowling, I wasn’t hitting the lengths I wanted consistently. Halfway through the Edgbaston Test I sat down with Ottis Gibson and talked about why I wasn’t hitting lengths. Maybe I was trying to do too many things, searching for wickets too much. When you do that against world-class players they just pick you off and that was happening to me.”