Stuart Broad has packed plenty of incident into his 17 Ashes Tests so far. There has been brilliance, controversy, elation, disappointment and a fair few other outcomes and emotions in between since he first faced Australia in Test cricket, at Cardiff in 2009.
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Six years to the day later, he will be back at the same venue impatient to climb aboard the roller-coaster again.
He can only hope for a better output this time, having recorded Ashes debut figures of one for 129 – he did get Michael Clarke, though, for the first of nine occasions – in a contest which had a thrilling conclusion, and of course prefaced England’s 2-1 series victory.
Broad was centre stage for that August triumph at the Oval, obliterating Australia’s top order with first-innings figures of five for 37 – an early demonstration of his match-winning knack when the stakes are high.
Yet there have been troughs too.
Brilliant from @InvestecCricket and @barneydouglas captures the emotion and passion perfectly #weareengland http://t.co/RVJixo2rMs
— Stuart Broad (@StuartBroad8) July 6, 2015
Broad has copped flak, and not exclusively from Australians, through a career which has featured barren spells as well as irresistible ones. It has not always been his impact with ball in hand either that has caught the attention.
Trent Bridge, his home ground since moving from Leicestershire in 2007, bore witness to that in England’s series-opening win there two years ago thanks to a flashpoint few Australians are ever likely to let lie.
They were urged, in fact, by Darren Lehmann to make Broad so uncomfortable in the 2013/14 rematch that he would “cry and go home” for what the Australia coach described at the time as an act of “blatant cheating”. Broad chose not to walk when given not out, despite edging debutant spinner Ashton Agar to slip via wicketkeeper Brad Haddin’s gloves.
Four months later, England’s hosts did not shirk their national duty – one newspaper in Brisbane choosing to make its disdain obvi- ous by refusing to refer to Broad by name in the first Test at the Gabba, instead describing the actions only of “the 27-year-old medium-pacer”.
Broad was, and still is, a bit quicker than that and, albeit in England’s first defeat of their 5-0 whitewash, responded by taking six for 81 in Australia’s first innings.
Revelling in the moment, he picked up a stray copy of the newspaper on his way into the close-of-play press conference and placed it on the desk in front of him as he took questions.
In one response, attempting to deflect the impact on him of boorish crowd behaviour, he ventured that England were the “silent assassins” of the series.
It did not take long for that remark to backfire, and by the end of the tour Broad was alone as an Englishman who had remotely played to his potential, with 21 wickets at well under 28 each.
He could not stem the tide, though, and so he finds himself again having to talk a good game on behalf of a much-changed England side. Broad acknowledges Australia will arrive in confident mood after their 2-0 dismissal of West Indies last month, but he sets plenty of store too in three successive home Ashes series wins for England.
“Australia are in fantastic form, but we also have to remember that our record in England is really good,” he said.
“Australia haven’t won an Ashes series in England since 2001, which is quite a long time, so we have to realise our strengths. We can’t fear the Australians; we can’t build the Australians up to be something they’re not. We have to go into the series with belief that we can win.”
It was a Broad special that sent the Australians home with another defeat in 2013. His career-best match figures of 11 for 121 at Chester-le-Street gave England an unassailable 3-1 lead and ensured the Ashes were retained with a match to spare.
He will begin the mission to regain the urn after a mini-sabbatical, left out of the team which won a wonderfully entertaining ODI series against New Zealand.
Broad insists England can take collective heart too after contributing much to the exciting cricket also played in the Test series shared 1-1 with the Kiwis at the start of this summer.
“The players will be keen to continue that sort of front-foot cricket,” he said. “It’s exciting to watch, exciting to play, and if we do that, I think the Ashes will be special. Alastair Cook has come back into some amazing form, (there is) Joe Root in the middle, and obviously we have got some good bowlers.
“I think if we perform to the best of our ability we will be right up there.”
Broad has had his setbacks in Australia – in England’s 2010/11 win there, he was out injured after the second Test. But at home against the old enemy, he has tasted only success and is ready for more.
