Stuart Broad has revealed that Shane Warne’s performance with the bat during the 2005 Ashes is the inspiration behind his improved batting as a tailender. Broad on Saturday played a fiery knock of 62 off 45 balls to help England post a commendable total of 369 in the first innings of the third and final Test against the West Indies.

Broad said that former England coach Peter Moores had suggested him to take a leaf out of Warne’s batting technique of 2005 Ashes.

Advertisement

“Moores came to me at the start of June and basically said: ‘Look at how Shane Warne played’,” Broad told Sky Sports as quoted by IANS.

“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 the hero of the resistance that the Australian tailenders had put during the 2005 Ashes series. One of Warne’s efforts had come in the Edgbaston Test which England had won by just two runs. The spin legend had also scored a 122-ball 90 in the third and drawn 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 practice 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 on the second day of the third Test was part of a revival in England’s batting after they were reduced to 280/8 and looked certain to for a below-300 total.