In a recent article in All Out Cricket magazine, Stuart Broad revealed the secrets of transforming his game bowling to left-handers.
The Notts and England fast bowler has dramatically improved his productivity against left-handers in recent times; a pre-2014 Test average of 30.31 against lefties has plummeted to 23.53 in the time since (to July 2016). Here he offers insights on his approach:
My record to left-handers has gone through the roof because of this round-the-wicket, Freddie Flintoff-style approach. I looked at pictures of how Freddie did it from the ’05 Ashes, his angle of run-up... He was bringing the stumps into play and getting it to move.
About six weeks before last summer’s Ashes I looked at their line-up: Rogers, I thought Marsh would play, Warner... a lot of their big men up the top were lefties so I thought: ‘I’m average to left-handers. I can move it away from over the wicket but what’s the mode of dismissal? Literally a nick, that’s it. If I come round the wicket I can bring the stumps into play if it goes straight on, and the nick if it goes away.’
I couldn’t have dreamt for that Ashes series to go any better to left-handers. That’s changed my style of bowling, because it makes me a threat to both right- and left-handers.
I’ve also stopped trying to genuinely swing it away. You’ll get a lot of coaches still, who’ll say: ‘If you can’t swing it away you won’t be any good’ but some of the best bowlers that I’ve studied, like Glenn McGrath, Stuart Clark, Shaun Pollock, always had that nip back in. My logic was if you put a batsman in a still position and you bowl a ball that swings away, if it’s an absolute beauty of a ball it can still miss the edge. But if you nip them back it brings the stumps in, it brings lbw in, and brings caught behind and short-leg in. Whereas if you swing it away, you’re only bringing the edge in.
In 2014, around the India series, Peter Moores picked up something in my mindset: he thought that when I got negative – brought slips out and put a cover or mid-wicket in, and got defensive – I changed as a bowler. So he said: ‘Even if you’re in a bad spell, even if you’re going for runs, get an extra catcher in, get a short-leg in.’ Because mentally then I go, ‘I’m the man, I’m in control of the game, I’m all over the batsman, I can bowl good balls, I can get you out.’
As soon as I‘m thinking: ‘Oh, he’s going to hit me for four, I need to get him out, I need to protect that area’ it changes my whole mentality, the tempo of my run-up, everything. He spotted that in me, so now generally you’ll see me put fielders into attacking positions.
In the Ashes last summer I would sometimes have five slips and was still not going for runs, because then I was running in, slamming it in and being aggressive rather than thinking: ‘Just get it in a good area and see where they go.’
To read more from the All Out Cricket Performance Special click here. Or to find out what else is in the latest issue go to the All Out Cricket website.
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