Retired bowling legend Stuart Broad’s hilarious reaction to England’s Test squad announcement shows how much he misses the game. Broad hung up his boots from all formats of international cricket after playing the Ashes at home earlier this year. Since then, Broad has assumed more of a relaxed role, now making appearances as a commentator and analyst in cricket events. Recently, England Cricket revealed the Test squad that would be competing against India in a bilateral series next year. While uploading the post with the squad on his Instagram story, Broad wrote, “Genuinely spent five seconds looking for my name”.
Broad retired from the sport on July 29 this year. In an interview to Sky Sports, he said, “It probably hasn’t sunk in that I won’t bowl another ball or hit another ball.” The fast bowler desired to finish at the highest level in the sport which ultimately fuelled his decision to call it quits. “I wanted to…finish at the top and Ashes cricket feels like the top for me”, Broad added.
Broad is widely regarded as one of the greatest Test bowlers. Earlier this year he proved his mettle against a star-studded Australian side in the 2023 Ashes despite being at the twilight of his career. He scalped 22 wickets, proving to be one of the most impactful players of the series. Broad finished just one wicket behind Mitchell Starc’s 23-wicket tally in the bilateral tour. Broad has played a total of 167 Test matches in his career. In those games, he has 604 wickets at an average of 27.68 and an economy of 2.97.
Since Broad departed from England’s squad, not much has changed on the Test front, however, in ODIs the team has seen a massive dip. They had a humiliating end to their ODI World Cup campaign in India followed by a series loss to the West Indies. They haven’t played a Test series since the World Cup and will next be competing on Indian soil on January 25 next year.
The first Test match between India and England will be played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. England’s counterparts India will have already played a Test series against South Africa by then which means that the World Cup finalists will be more than prepared to take the English side head-on. It will be interesting to see if the Four Lions will be able to maintain their consistency in this format of cricket despite missing one of their biggest bowling icons in history.