England in 'really positive' position after second day - Stuart Broad
Stuart Broad believes England ended the second day in a "really positive" position on an Edgbaston pitch that he described as one of the slowest he has encountered in his 94 Test matches on home soil and a "nightmare" for a fast bowler.
Ben Stokes, England's captain, publicly requested "fast, flat wickets" for this summer's Ashes series but the Edgbaston pitch has been on the slow side across the first two days. "Hopefully it's not a trend for the whole series," Broad said at stumps, speaking to broadcasters.
"How can I be polite? It's a very slow, low surface that saps the energy out of the ball, would be the nice way to put it," Broad added. "It's been pretty characterless so far - a bit soulless. But ultimately you can only judge it towards the end of a Test match and see how it develops.
"It's certainly one of the slowest pitches I can remember bowling on in England. I think there was a stat that, for the Aussies in the first 10 overs, it moved the least-ever recorded. It has certainly been hard work for the seamers.
"Ultimately, we're looking to entertain and have fun and get the crowd jumping, and it's quite a difficult pitch to get plays-and-misses on and nicks to slip and stuff… these sorts of pitches are your worst nightmare when Steve Smith walks to the crease, to be honest."
Australia reached stumps trailing by 82 runs with five first-innings wickets remaining after Usman Khawaja batted through the day for an unbeaten hundred. But with Pat Cummins - who has averaged 11.71 in his last 40 innings - due in at No. 8, Broad believes England's toil resulted in "a really good day".
"The game is nicely poised: we're one or two wickets away from the tail," Broad told the BBC's Test Match Special. "It's been a hard, gruelling day on a pitch that's offered very little so far, but for us, being 90-odd ahead with five wickets to get, and trying to get in a position where we're not batting last on that pitch is a really positive place to be."
He added to Sky Sports: "To still be 82 runs ahead of Australia with Pat Cummins and the tail next, we're pretty happy. Things could happen pretty quickly for us in the first hour tomorrow… to pick up their key batters relatively cheaply, we're pretty happy."
Australia have scored at 3.30 runs an over in their first innings compared to England's scoring rate of 5.03, and Broad believes that the "clash in styles" will make for an intriguing series.
"I think that's the nature of the pitch slightly, to be honest," he said. "It certainly doesn't feel like the sort of pitch you'd have eight slips and gully, and the sort of pitch that you can play really extravagantly on.
"I think the great thing about this series is both teams have got quite a clear style of play and both teams will stay true to how they're going to play that. So I think they [the teams] probably clash in styles, but that will make for exciting cricket."