Stuart Broad, with 501 wickets, is second in the list of most test wickets by an English bowler. (Source: File)
England’s Stuart Broad said he considered retiring after being omitted for last month’s series opener against West Indies at Southampton. This after the English think tank decided to opt for a three-pronged pace attack comprising James Anderson, Jofra Archer, and Mark Wood for the first match. West Indies won the contest by four wickets.
After his run of 51 consecutive home tests was broken, Broad returned to claim 16 wickets in the next two tests as England won the series 2-1, and right-arm seamer was adjudged as the player of the series.
“Were there thoughts of retirement going round my head? One hundred per cent. Because I was so down,” Broad told the Mail on Sunday.
“I can’t think of many times I have been down like that. When I have been dropped before, I can go ‘Fair enough, good decision, can’t really argue with that’.
“This time, when Stokesy told me I wasn’t playing, I felt my body go into shakes. I could barely speak,” he said, referring to acting captain Ben Stokes.
On his experience of playing in a bio-secure bubble, Broad said, “When you are in the bio-secure bubble and you are in a room in a hotel that is on the cricket ground, you wake up and the cricket ground is there and you are surrounded by cricketers the whole time and everything is crickety, then cricket is life.”
“Could I get 600? Absolutely I think I could. Jimmy was 35 and one month when he got 500. I was 34 and one month,” he said.
“Jimmy is now within touching distance of 600. So stats wise, absolutely.”
Broad (501 wickets) is second in the list of most test wickets by an English bowler. James Anderson tops the charts with 589 wickets.
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