Stuart Broad has revealed the instrumental role his father and Sir Richard Hadlee played in remodelling his approach to bowling this summer, culminating in his most successful Ashes series with the ball.
The two Nottinghamshire legends consulted with Broad over how he could adapt his bowling in a bid to prolong his career at the highest level.
The resultant shortened run-up and higher action helped the 33-year-old claim 23 across all five Tests, finishing as England’s leading wicket-taker of the series.
“All the hard work has been worth it,” said Broad.
“I've gone from being talked about as a diminishing cricketer being eased out to being mentioned as a reinvented cricketer with more to offer. At 33 years old that is a good place to be.
“Fate allowed me to have the time during the winter to work on things. In Sri Lanka I didn't play too much and I was able to work on a new run up and stuff like my attacking intent, which has paid dividends.”
Earlier this summer, Broad had also credited Nottinghamshire Head Coach Peter Moores and team analyst Kunal Manek with honing his method to David Warner.
The trio concluded that Broad was allowing batsmen to leave the ball too often, with a more direct approach helping him remove the destructive Australian opener seven times in ten innings.
“I did a lot of planning on David Warner and how I might get him out before the series started," he said.
"I had to go fuller at him, I had to try and hit his stumps and I had to try and forget about his outside edge.
"The edges would come but only if I bowled in the right areas consistently rather than searching for the edge of his bat. I never dreamt that I would have the success against him that I've had.
“I felt like the mindset of trying to hit the stumps has really paid off.
"I don't think we could have dreamt of keeping Australia's opening pairs quite so quiet throughout the series so we can class that as a good win for us.
“We do a lot of planning and preparation to go into these series and our new ball bowling has been a success."
Broad’s contribution to the drawn series has been widely lauded, with the right-armer being named as the PCA’s Most Valuable Player over the Test-match summer.
His career haul of Test wickets now stands at 467, with the series taking him further clear as the second most successful bowler in English Test history.
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