Stuart Broad says he 'got lucky' during David Warner hot streak
Stuart Broad has said that he "got lucky" against David Warner in the 2019 Ashes, when he dismissed him seven times in the space of 104 balls.
Broad had analysed Warner's Test methods extensively before the series, and had made a conscious effort to bowl fuller and straighter after discovering at Nottinghamshire from head coach Peter Moores and analyst Kunal Manek that his success was closely linked to the percentage of balls that batsmen left against him.
But speaking to The Analyst's Virtual Cricket Club - an initiative set-up by Simon Hughes to support the Professional Cricketers' Trust - Broad said that conditions and the timing of the series had created a perfect platform for him to succeed.
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"I got lucky, in the sense that it was a really good summer to bowl with a brand-new ball in England," Broad said. "It had that dryness of pitches - probably due to the World Cup - that just nipped off the seam. I was fresh, I was buzzing, I was excited because it was my first international cricket of the summer - for guys who had played in the World Cup, it was maybe a different story.
"I had a lot of time to do research while the World Cup was going on. I've always found [Warner] a very difficult batsman to bowl at, particularly in the third innings when you're tired: he's very good at punishing shorter bowling and width. I did a lot of research on how he gets out and said: 'I'm going to try and hit his stumps all the time and make him play every ball. If he hits me for four down the ground, I'm winning; if he cuts me through point, I'm losing.'
"I had all my energy focused on hitting the stumps, and by the time I got him twice, he was then unsure whether to play me or leave me, because balls were nipping back at the stumps. We had a bit of a chat after I'd got him out in the first innings at Lord's. I'd got him out three times - lbw, caught behind, bowled - and we were just walking out of the pavilion at the same time.
"He asked me: 'how did you nip it back up the slope? Was it deliberate?' I knew I had a bit of an advantage there, when he was asking if I'd deliberately nipped it back. I'm looking to hit the stumps, but I don't know which way it's nipping."
Broad has not been the only English bowler with a stranglehold over Warner in the last 18 months. After dismissing him three times in the Ashes, Archer removed Warner four times in five white-ball innings at the end of the English summer, and got him out twice in the 12 balls he bowled to him in the ongoing IPL season.
Broad said that he had been watching Archer's success against him with a keen interest, but that he had no doubt that bowling against Warner on Australian soil in the 2021-22 Ashes series would prove a different challenge.
"Just watching Jofra bowling at him in the white-ball stuff, in the IPL and England vs Australia at the end of the summer… when it's nipping across him and brings the slips in, that is the danger ball.
"David Warner is a proven, world-class player: you just look at his Test, one-day, IPL, T20 record. In 18 months' time, he'll have done a lot of thinking about how to combat Jofra and me, the way we move the ball. He'll have a different plan. That means come the end of next summer, Jofra and I will look at how wickets fall in Australia, practise with the Kookaburra ball, and have to find a slightly different way to bowl at him to try to counteract what he's doing.
"Pitching the ball up and trying to hit his shin in Australia might be a pretty risky strategy, because it doesn't nip at the MCG like it might do at Headingley. That's the sort of battle I love about international cricket."
Broad also reiterated his stance that English cricket's emphasis on express pace being key to winning in Australia was misguided, describing the idea as a "myth". While many have suggested that Archer and Mark Wood's ability to pass 90mph will be crucial if England are to win back the Ashes in 2021-22, Broad said that a failure to post consistent scores with the bat had been their biggest problem in recent defeats.
"We sometimes get caught up in this idea that you have to take 90-95mph bowlers and that they'll win you [a series] in Australia," he said. "But actually, in my opinion, it's runs.
"When was England's last success [there]? 2010-11. Cook? Series of his life. Trott? Hundreds. Strauss? Hundreds. KP? Big hundreds. Bell? Hundred. Prior? Hundred. Who were the bowlers? Jimmy Anderson had good success, Bresnan, Tremlett - all 82, 83mph. In my opinion, this myth of you need 95mph [bowlers] to win there… you don't, you need 550 on the board. Let's see how the Australian batsmen play with 550 on the board."