Stuart Broad retired as the second most prolific fast bowler in Test history. (AP Photo)
Stuart Broad accumulated 22 wickets in the Ashes Test series 2023, just one shy of Australian speedster Mitchell Starc’s total of 23.
Legendary England pacer Stuart Broad has claimed that he has no regret over announcing his retirement from international cricket after the recently concluded Ashes Test series against Australia. Broad, who was the leading wicket-taker for England in the five-match Ashes, stunned everyone with his retirement announcement during the fifth Test at the Oval, London.
Broad finished his career by picking two crucial two wickets in the final innings of the 5th Ashes Test at the Oval, dismissing Todd Murphy and Alex Carey.
He accumulated 22 wickets in the Ashes Test series 2023, just one shy of Australian speedster Mitchell Starc’s total of 23. He is also one of only three players with 150+ wickets in the Ashes series.
Broad said he has no doubts about the big decision he made as has no regret about it.
“Since I shook Ben Stokes’s hand and told him my decision, I’ve not had one doubt. Not one regret. Finishing with all my family at the Oval, in the way I did was special and I’ve always wanted to leave the game loving it. I’d always retained a bit of a fear of one day playing against an up and coming 20-year-old and them saying: ‘I heard he was OK, but he’s actually rubbish.’ So, I wanted to finish with people thinking I could still do the job,” Broad said to the Daily Mail.
Broad has taken 604 wickets in 167 tests — including 8-15 against Australia in 2015 — making him the second most successful paceman in Test history behind teammate James Anderson, and fifth overall.
The legendary pacer further said that he and James Anderson had an unwritten clause that they never wanted to finish their career at the same time.
“It was like an unwritten clause in a contract that Jimmy and I never wanted to finish at the same time. We always wanted an overlap one way or the other, a crossover of knowledge, not 300-plus matches of Test experience disappearing out of the changing room. So, I chatted to Jimmy during the Old Trafford Test and he said he was going to work on loads of different things, would make sure he was as fit as anything going to India this winter and was buzzing about next summer.”
Broad also revealed that wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow predicted a night before the final day about how the match is going to an end and it turned out to be absolutely right.
“Funnily enough, I saw Jonny Bairstow the night before in the hotel, after he’d been out with his family for a bite to eat, and he said: ‘You know what’s going to happen, tomorrow? It’s going to finish with a bowled Broad, caught Bairstow.’ So when I was hugging him, I reminded him: ‘You called it’. It was the most satisfying feeling ever to end that Test match,” he added.
