Broad takes leaf out of Warne’s book to improve batting form

Manchester, July 26 (IANS): Stuart Broad hit 62 from 45 balls on the second day of the third Test between England and West Indies to take his side to a commanding position in the match. The innings has been part of an upturn in fortunes for Broad with the bat in recent matches and he credited former England coach Peter Moores, who is also his current mentor at Nottinghamshire, for it.

Broad said that Moores asked him to take a leaf out of Australian spin great Shane Warne’s batting technique that the latter used during the dramatic 2005 Ashes.

“Mooresy came to me at the start of June and basically said: ‘Look at how Shane Warne played’,” Broad told Sky Sports. “Particularly in the ’05 Ashes when he scored some really useful runs. He was quite unorthodox, opening up different parts of the field, and so I did a bit of research as to how he went about it and decided that was quite a good way for me to go.”

Warne was part of the extraordinary resistance put up by the Australian tail during the Edgbaston Test in that series that ended with England winning by two runs. He had also scored a 122-ball 90 during the drawn third Test at Old Trafford.

“I’ve done a couple of tactical and technical things with Peter Moores back at Notts, which has helped me set up a better gameplan and I stuck to that today. I like going through the off side, so I was trying to keep my head out of the way, instead of falling over to bring in the lbw.

“I think I’m at my best when I’m just striking the ball,” he added. “But one thing I’ve done recently is try and keep my head much stiller.

“As soon as the eyes start moving on delivery, everything feels much quicker and harder, so the work I’ve done recently to be as still as possible when the ball’s released, which gives you the best chance of striking it.

“It’s really hard to tell in the nets, you need match practise at it, but felt really comfortable today, having a clear gameplan of what to do,” he added. “And I think the situation helped today. It was not one of those situations to try and hang around for two hours and see where we went. I’m not someone who’s going to be able to leave loads of balls and bat 100 balls for 20. I want to be able to score and those situations like today suit me really.”

Broad’s innings helped reach a total of 369 after they were 280/8. It was part of a revival in England’s batting after they found themselves on 122/4 on the first day with Ollie Pope and Jos Buttler’s counter-attacking first to put on a 140-run stand taking them to 262.