'Have I mellowed? No': Love, hate and Stuart Broad

By his own admission, Stuart Broad isn't ready for day one at the Gabba. Not as he'd like to be, anyway. After 149 Tests, seven Ashes series, and three previous tours to Australia, he knows how to plot his ideal preparation. And this? This has been far from ideal.

"Normally as a sportsperson, you just go, 'Yeah, I feel great'," Broad tells cricket.com.au. "But I can honestly say, I don't think any player will be as well placed as they would want to be, because of the situation that everyone's been in.

"Australia have played what, four Tests in the past year? We've not played since the end of August.

"I think all 22 players are going to go, 'OK, I haven't got a lot of cricket behind me here – red-ball cricket, Test match intensity – I've got to settle quickly'.

"That's where experience comes into play. You'll see mistakes early from both teams, but who can make the least mistakes, and who can be right on the money to capitalise, that's the team that will win day one."

That is exactly the context in which Broad is quietly willing himself a competitive advantage. Through the lens of experience, he is more ready than just about anyone: the 35-year-old has won twice as many Ashes series as any Australian he will come up against; and of the 33 players in the two squads, only he and Jimmy Anderson have won one away from home.

And when it all heats up at the Gabba? Well, he knows a thing or two about that as well.

"I've always enjoyed bowling there because of the emotion the crowd gives you," he says, kicking off a recurring theme of our conversation. "It is a partisan crowd, an emotional crowd, so every time you get that ball in your hand, you've got a bit of extra adrenaline that drives you through, and if you can control that adrenaline, you can have success there."

Eight years ago, Broad received an infamous welcome to the venue which, perhaps more than any other in modern times, has been an Ashes hotbed. The initial chorus of boos never wilted, becoming as constant that summer as Mitchell Johnson's onslaught with the ball. He remembers his friend and agent, Neil Fairbrother – also an ex-England cricketer who played in the 1992 World Cup final at the MCG – telling him he'd never heard such noise at a cricket ground.

Like the penguins of Madagascar, Broad smiled and waved. He employed other methods too, utilising the expertise of a sports psychologist to better keep his emotions in check, and his mind fixed firmly on the contest.

"In 2013, the boos were incredible," he says of a series in which he took 21 wickets at 27.52. "I trained my brain to be able to cope with that actually.

"In our warm-up games, I'd walk around the ground on my own and get the odd jibe, and I wouldn't react – I'd just stay calm to it."

The disciplines have become entrenched in his psyche, their benefits significant.

"I deal with competitive crowd noise nicely – it spurs me on, and I like smiling at it," he adds. "If I'm ever feeling tired and I hear something, that's going to give me energy, and I thrive off that."

Image Id: DBE245165454467095519AA52DEF335C Image Caption: Broad was the Ashes villain during the 2013-14 Aussie summer // Getty

Accompanying the brain training was another, simpler trick: Broad understood something about Australians then, just as he does now. A summer spent playing club cricket for Hoppers Crossing in the outer south-western suburbs of Melbourne right after he finished school helped him pull back the curtain to reveal the mystery.

"I'd have been 17, maybe 18," he recalls. "In an Australian changing room, at an Australian club as the overseas player … I realised how ultra-competitive even Sub-District cricket was, and I think Australians who I played with and against there realised how naturally competitive I was, because I thrived off it.

"I never shied away from the battle, I never shied away from the challenge.

"Even at a young age, before I played Ashes cricket, I got the sense that Australian players and fans will always have a go at you competitively, but will respect you if you stand up and you compete.

"So actually, my theory throughout my whole international career is, I don't really care if I get runs, wickets, but if I compete, and I have a presence, and I stand up, I'm happy."

Broad describes himself on that 2013-14 Ashes tour as a 27-year-old "just charging around, desperate to do well every day". There was a feeling among observers then, which he confirms now, that he needed to hate the batter in order to draw the best out of himself. Nowadays, that is no longer a prerequisite, and while both remain essential, the balance between emotion and intelligence has shifted.

"I think emotionally, I used to definitely be in that camp (of needing to hate his opponents), because my emotions would drag me over the line to getting through spells," he says.

"Whereas now, my brain is going a little bit more strategy based, (and) slightly less emotional. So I'll work out what percentage of balls I'm looking to bowl in a certain area to a certain batter, and that's what I'll judge myself on.

"I'm just a lot more aware of my game now. I have more of a strategic process.

"Now, I very rarely sledge a batter or get involved in a verbal confrontation. And if I do, it's for my own good – I know that I've got to ramp my emotions up.

"So if you see me chirping – which I will do, because the competitive spirit's huge in Ashes cricket, and I'll back up my teammate at any stage – but if you see me chirping, you know that's for me, not for the batter."

With that last point, Broad makes clear the change in dynamic between strategy and emotion should not be interpreted as a softening with age. He cannot afford for that to be the case.

"Have I mellowed?" he asks, pondering the question. "No, because every time I get that ball, I have to be at 100 per cent – I'm not the most skilful bowler, I'm not the most talented, so I have to be at 100 per cent emotionally all the time.

"But can I control those emotions much better now? Absolutely.

"Certain techniques in my game, where I always look above the stands to keep my brain calm, and take me out of the cauldron of the atmosphere, those sorts of techniques that I've grown over a long period of time help me deliver my skill for longer."

It is all part of an evolution that has encompassed 118 Ashes wickets, from the series-defining spell at The Oval in 2009, to the 8-15 at Trent Bridge in 2015, to the absolute dominance of David Warner in 2019.

There have been low points, too. Notably, when Broad's lean bowling returns through the 2017-18 Ashes (11 wickets at 47, SR 106) was compounded by a questioning of his courage as a batter during the Perth Test by then ABC radio commentator and former Australia opener Chris Rogers, who also played with and against the Englishman.

Josh Hazlewood, too, suggested at the time that England's tailenders "didn't want to be out there" as the Australians targeted them with a short-pitched assault.

Three years earlier, Broad's nose had been broken by a bouncer from India's Varun Aaron, which somehow snuck through his helmet grille. In the aftermath, he suffered nightmares about the ball thudding into his face, noting "it knocked my confidence big time".

During that 2017-18 tour in Australia, the comments on his character might well have had an impact. In the next two Tests, he responded with knocks of 56 and 31, while his intent to at least go down swinging is highlighted by another statistic: only Ben Stokes has hit more sixes (16) in the Ashes than Broad's nine since that Aaron incident.

"I think over a long period of time against Australia, I've had some great moments where I have delivered skill-wise," he says. "But even when I haven't, I've stood up competitively, and I would hope the Australian public like that about me."

And so we circle back to the Gabba, which will likely act as a harsh barometer of that affection on December 8. Broad knows it, of course, but he knows too that the boos have dissipated over the years, perhaps through a grudging respect for a great opponent. Besides, to consider the fans' jeering as anything other than a motivator for him would be to ignore both history, and everything he has been saying. 

"You know, there's nothing to fear at the Gabba," he says. "I love playing there. It's awesome. It's aggressive. It's what you train for. It's what you play for.

"The crowds are what make Ashes cricket so special to play in, the rivalry so big. If you can't enjoy those moments, you're in the wrong game.

"I've loved every moment against the Australian crowds, because they love competitive cricket – and my whole game is based around that."

Image Id: A673A181D51E46039ED08A2E6ADAA2DE Image Caption: Broad's lone five-wicket haul in Australia came at the Gabba in Nov 2013 // Getty

Complementing the inevitable madness of the Gabbatoir, will be the method in Broad's approach. It is one he has learned from his successes and failures there, stretching back to 2010. In fact, no Englishman has taken more wickets than Broad's 12 (ave 24.58) at the venue since the late Bob Willis. 

"I don't feel like it's somewhere that you're going to get loads and loads of plays and misses, and it nips all over (the place) like it can in England," he offers. 

"But if you're relentless with your lengths, that sort of 'Josh Hazlewood length', and you just hammer away, hammer away, it will give you success because the slips are in play.

"So as long as you don't search for too much movement from full of a length and you just hammer away at between six-and-a-half, six metres, you can be successful."

As he counts down the days to another Ashes opener, Broad is remembering lessons both old and new. When he was a teenager, his father Chris – himself a Test cricketer of considerable repute – offered him what he considered a fundamental theory: at the top level, the game is 80 per cent mental, and only 20 per cent technical.

"But now I've played 149 Tests," Broad adds, "I'd even go a bit further – it's 90 per cent mental.

"If you can get your processes (in order), switch on at the right times and deal with pressure well, the rest will look after itself."

They are wise words, collected from the experiences of 149 Tests, seven Ashes series, and three previous tours to Australia.

Forget the imperfect preparation. Stuart Broad has never been more ready.

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: December 8-12, The Gabba

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Perth Stadium