Stuart Broad

Well what a few days it's been for Stuart Broad, vital 64 yesterday and today a hat-trick and 6 for 46 his best ever spell of Test Match bowling. Going into this series his place was under sincere pressure and rightly so but he's proved his critics wrong in these last two tests and is the best form of his career. Pitching it up has worked wonders for Broady and you've just gotta wonder why he hasn't been doing this earlier? Is it the bowling coaches fault? The media? Or just Broad himself? But now that doesn't matter as he's secured himself in Englands team and has proved himself to be one of the best current all-rounders in World Cricket.

The question I ask though is far now can Broad go? Will this just be a short term improvement in form? Or will he go on to become one of Englands greatest bowlers/all rounders? Time will tell but at the moment he's proving himself worthy and at exactly the right time.

Hes put in quite a few match wnning peformances in the past which supposedly heralded hs transformaton into the real new botham. These are punctuated by extended periods of mediocrity. He won the Ashes in 09 with a 4 for 8 in 16 balls, then took a load of wickets in south africa. Following that he stunk for a year.
Hes clearly got the ability to caus any batsman difficulty, h just needsto do that consistently.
That was something special though,and if he dos nothing else in test cricket he still will have a great highlights reel

Really pleased for him, I do like Broad he comes across as a down to earth hard working lad that really wants to do well for England.

Clearly very talented, and hopefully this kickstarts his career again now.

I think the england coaching team messed him around with this daft unworkable scheme for him as a rough em up bowler.

In future a more sensible approach is to balance his england test games with county cricket 4 day games. in the first half of the season.

This may mean he doesnt play all the odis but I would rather see that than risk his form and fitness

Broad is a good tallent, good bowler, decent bat down the order. But both departents of his game need improvement, consistency in either department hasn't been his strength.
Also has attitude has been infuriating at times. If he can work on the mental aspect of his batting (I feel his batting technique isn't much of a problem, its more about the temprament to play the long innings) and doing the things that worked for him with the ball, then in the future, he can be a very useful all-rounder.

need something from him with the ball 2nd time round

msp83 wrote:Broad is a good tallent, good bowler, decent bat down the order. But both departents of his game need improvement, consistency in either department hasn't been his strength.
Also has attitude has been infuriating at times. If he can work on the mental aspect of his batting (I feel his batting technique isn't much of a problem, its more about the temprament to play the long innings) and doing the things that worked for him with the ball, then in the future, he can be a very useful all-rounder.

I think that's a slightly harsh analysis of Broad. He's still fairly young, and his stats are now only marginally worse than Flintoff's at the end of his career (average-wise).

As a previous poster said, for quite a while he was given a role that doesn't really suit him as a bowler. Now that he's pitching it up more he's more effective.

As for his temperament as a batsmen, I don't see any issue with that. He comes in at 8, so often has to simply bat for quick runs rather than getting a chance to build an innings. I think he's proven in the last test he's certainly capable of scoring important runs for England.

He has taken 15 wickets in the last 2 games, he took that many in his previous 7 Test matches before this. What a difference a couple of weeks makes!

I think he can go on to become a very good player for England. He is a perfect number 8 batsman and great first change bowler. I'm not sure he will ever become an absolute legend but he has the ability to make things happen when you need them to.