LONDON, (Reuters) – England quick Stuart Broad reckons his total domination of Australia opener David Warner in last year’s Ashes series was down to his strategy of denying the batsman any width to play his fierce cut shots and square drives.
Broad dismissed Warner seven times in 10 innings as the subdued left-hander finished the drawn series with only 95 runs.
“He is such a dangerous player and one of the best third-innings opening batsmen in the world,” Broad said in a Sky Cricket podcast.
“Having played against him a lot over the last eight or nine years, I found that, as I am a taller bowler, when he sat back in the crease he was cutting and square driving me a lot to the boundary. “I decided I was just going to try and hit his stumps every ball. I was not going to try and swing it away from it as I felt that gave him width, I was just going to scramble the seam.”
Broad said he kept attacking the stumps and did not mind the occasional straight drives. “Once I got him at Lord’s, the third time in a row, I just got that feeling like I was getting a bit of a competitive edge over him,” said Broad, who has 485 wickets from 138 tests.
The lanky right-arm bowler has forged a formidable new-ball partnership with Jimmy Anderson, test cricket’s most prolific seam bowler, and he attributed their success to their complementary approaches.
“I love the competitive side of cricket, the moment of winning, working a batsman out, getting a wicket, but he just loves any sort of bowling and is at his happiest just trucking in,” Broad added.
