Stuart Broad may change bowling style to make a comeback to the ODI team
Apr 6, 2019 at 2:18 PM
In an attempt to make it to the ODI team, English pacer Stuart Broad is contemplating the idea of changing his bowling style.
The star pacer was left out of the ODI squad for the five-game one-day series and one Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka commencing later this month, and has only played twice since the 2015 World cup.
But Broad has accepted this snub in a positive way and has started to plan a comeback to the ODI team. In the current scenario, variation is very important to contain the batsmen and the 29-year-old is well aware that he may need to find a few new tricks if he is to do so.
“I almost need a bit of a unique selling point in one-day cricket,” Broad admitted. “I can’t just be a regulation line and length bowler, I have to be something different and perhaps that’s me going round the wicket and looking to improve my skills in that way, making the batsman think ‘what’s he doing here’.
“Not just to shut down one side but maybe changing the angle, maybe my leg-cutter from round the wicket would be hard to slog to the leg-side. There might be something I can find that batsmen will struggle with.”
Broad is desperate to make a comeback to the team, before England hosts the Champions Trophy in 2017.The pacer also expressed his desire to play the 2019 World Cup comes.
“I’m going to have to carefully plot how to do it and the only way I’ll get back is by playing white-ball cricket,’ Broad said.
“It’s tricky because I haven’t played any limited-overs stuff. I saw a quote saying this squad had been picked on merit and I can’t argue with that because it’s not as if I’ve gone out there and taken a certain amount of white-ball wickets. I’m going to have to find a way to do that.
“I’m going to look at scheduling, whether it’s home or abroad, to try to play some white-ball cricket and there might be a decent opportunity after Christmas this year because there’s not a lot of Test cricket then until I think July.
“If I suddenly have a belting six weeks of 50-over cricket at the start of next season people might say ‘actually this bloke can bowl with the white ball. He has got a hundred odd ODI’S behind him and he could still be in the frame’.”
The first ODI between England and Sri Lanka is played at Trent Bridge on Tuesday.