England’s pace-bowler Stuart Broad, who recently went past former England all-rounder Ian Botham’s tally of 383 Test wickets, feels that England’s recent success against is because of their ability to not back down from a challenge: a quality that defined Botham’s cricketing career. Botham is probably England’s most celebrated cricketer of all time. Over a span of 15 years of international cricket, Ian Botham has won the Ashes Trophy for five times and has never bowed down in front of the Aussies.
Broad, who will lead the English bowling attack in Australia in the series opener in Gabba on November 23rd, said that he got a lot of inspirations from Botham to play the ways he plays; friendly and competitive. He further added that Botham was the one who always stood against Australia and didn’t bow down to the way the Australians played. This is one of the reasons he won it five times in his career. Broad feels that the team has learned a lot from what he did which is one of the reasons that England has had decent success for the past few years.
“He’s been an inspiration to me in how to take on Australia. When I grew up in our era from ’86-’87 to 2005, it was horrible watching the Ashes. That was an influence on me because it made me very determined that if ever I got the chance to play against them we’d have to win,” Broad was heard saying.
While talking about his feelings on surpassing Ian Botham’s tally of 383 Tests wickets this summer, the 31-year-old seamer said,” it’s kinda strange feeling for me for the fact that he was obviously here in my backyard having played with my dad a lot.”
Stuart Broad has played 19 Test matches for England picking up 388 Test wickets and scoring 2820 runs with the bat. Broad has been one of the important member of England squad for quite some time now, and a lot will depend on him how England bowlers utilise the green tops.