Former England captain Nasser Hussain said Stuart Broad is tailormade for Ashes cricket similar to his father, Chris Broad. However, Hussain’s statement came after the right-arm pacer reached the feat of 600 wickets on Day 1 of the 4th Ashes Test in Manchester on Wednesday, July 19 as well. Notably, Broad became only the fifth bowler in Test cricket to take 600 wickets, joining Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne, Anil Kumble, and James Anderson as well.
In his column for The Daily Mail, Hussain added, “It was fitting that Stuart Broad got to 600 career Test wickets against Australia because like his dad Chris, he was born for Ashes cricket. There is something about playing against Australia that brings out the best in him. These are the games in which you see how much heart he has. He always wants to be in a battle.”
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He continued: “You talk about Australia’s Smith being a problem solver with the bat, I see the same with Broad with the ball. He sees everything as a challenge too. They’re both cricket geeks. For me, Broad is in a rare fast bowling category as someone that ticks every box.”
However, Stuart Broad started the proceedings on Day 1, removing Usman Khawaja very cheaply in the fifth over of the innings. He then removed Head in the 50th over. With this, the veteran took his series tally to 18 as well. Nasser Hussain further said that fast bowling is incredibly hard work due to the need to stay match-fit always.
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“Fast bowling is hard work. It’s not just the 600 victims. You forget all the fitness and technical work Broad has done behind the scenes – keeping his body robust, working on his wrist position, re-training to swing the ball again. And it is all this stuff great players do behind the scenes that makes them so good. The constant desire to improve, to identify areas which are lacking and the raising of the bar that allows the very best to reach the heights Broad did on Wednesday,” he concluded.
