The Ashes: Stuart Broad on David Warner, Trent Bridge, and a fairytale farewell

The next time Broad was an Ashes winner, England’s famous triumph in 2010-11, he played just two Tests before his series was ended by a side injury. He cried as England team doctor Nick Pearce hugged him in the dressing room at Adelaide Oval and spent the third Test in Perth with the Test Match Special team before heading home to watch the rest of the series from his sofa.

Broad was two of two in the Ashes series, but his role as the Pom the Aussies love to hate wasn’t forged until 2013.

In a tight first Test, Broad’s edge off Ashton Agar’s spin deflected off Haddin’s wicket-keeping gloves and into Clarke’s hands at first slip. Broad did not walk, Australia were bowled out and his runs helped England win the match.

In Broad’s defence, his brass neck looked worse due to Haddin’s inability to hold on to the edge, but that did not stop Australia coach Darren Lehmann from branding him a “blatant cheat” who he hoped would “cry and go home” in the return series less than six months later.

Broad knew he would deal with it, not least when the Brisbane Courier-Mail newspaper refused to print his name and ran a headline calling him a “smug Bummy cheater”.

“In warm-up matches, I would walk around the edge with the psychologist or on my own,” he says. “If you’re walking around the Gabba, there might be 45,000 people there, so you just hear the noise. And if you’re walking around the warm-up area where there might only be 100 people, you hear every word.

“I wanted to build a shield around myself. I wanted to hear the abuse to strengthen me. I worked with the psychologist, because I knew it was coming, to strengthen my resolve.

“When my name was announced as I was playing the first ball in the first Test at the Gabba, the boos were unbelievable.

“The day before, I had done my mental pre-match routine. I stood at my end mark, bowled four overs in my mind and visualized the booing. I felt it. I felt like I’d been there before. It definitely bothered me. I bowled a no-ball, a short ball that was hit on four first balls. It was pretty overwhelming.”

Despite this feeling, Broad recovered to take five wickets, and that evening, he entered the press conference with the Courier under his arm. It was England’s best day of the series as they were dismantled by Mitchell Johnson and lost 5-0.

Eighteen months later, Broad was doing some dismantling of his own in a career-defining and Ashes-clinching performance.

In the Fourth Test at his home ground at Trent Bridge, Broad was bowling for the first time for England in the absence of the injured James Anderson. Using his local knowledge, Broad urged captain Alastair Cook to bat first if he won the toss.

“I was celebrating in the lead-up to my exit and Shane Warne came over and said: ‘That’s bowl first, isn’t it?’” Broad says. “I remember thinking Shane Warne was the first bat everywhere. If he thinks the ball is first…

“I went to Cookie. ‘Chef, you can have the bowl first.’ He said ‘Don’t worry, I’ve already made that call.'”

Brod’s legs were pumping. The Australian edges were swallowed up by the England players. Figures 8 to 15 remain the best in Ashes history by the pace of the bowler on both sides. Australia were torn apart in 18.3 overs and 94 minutes. 60 everything.

“You can’t comprehend it,” Broad says. “I got five for it, it came on the big screen and I had no idea.

“It took a while – months – to see the scorecard and see 8-15 written out. What was so special was that Joe Root got a hundred on the same day. If we had been out for 100, that’s a different conversation.”