Stuart Broad has highlighted a shift of mindset, facilitated by a focus on his endeavors for Nottinghamshire, as key to giving him a new lease of life at the highest level.
The Green and Golds seamer was omitted from England’s tour to the West Indies in 2022, but has admitted that the disappointment gave him a new perspective.
“Looking back a year I would not have chosen to miss the Caribbean, but it was a good thing that has happened for me,” Broad said.
“I never decided I was not going to play for England again, but when I got back to playing for Notts I decided to give it everything, put my heart and soul into each week, try and get a win, sign it off, recover and move on.
“I changed my mindset to just attacking a week at a time because it can be quite tiring looking too far ahead all the time and we got into a habit of doing that. It is so refreshing just to have a crack at the week in front of you.”
Broad’s reflections came ahead of England’s two-match Test Series against New Zealand, having missed the recent matches in Pakistan to be at the birth of his first child.
And with renewed enthusiasm, Broad continues to defy the adage you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, with hopes that technical tweaks may result in a bountiful return in the land of the long white cloud, particularly in this week's day/night Test.
"It's aimed at bowling right-handers," Broad said of his new approach. "It came about the start of last year, with the Dukes balls that didn't necessarily swing a huge amount.
"The wobble wasn't getting a huge amount of reaction, so I wanted to change my seam position and the way I wanted to do that was just change my shoulder position so it almost looks a bit like Dominic Cork. He used to have that high load, and used to twist his shoulders around.
“I've got quite an open front side, so the aim of it is to load high, to twist my shoulders earlier and get the ball to bounce away more to the right hander. It's something that I'll use against right-handers with the red ball a little bit more.
“You've got to have a little bit of luck when you bowl with the pink ball. It's like a harder indoor cricket ball, really. The most we got out of the warm-up game was bowling cross-seam, so there's no real guile and skill in bowling with the ball. You just got to wobble it or hold it across the seam and whack into the pitch as hard as you can.
“Tactically there's no doubt we'll use the bouncers earlier in the day and hold on for later, as when the sun's out the ball does nothing. It's a bit like when you watch the Aussies in Adelaide: all they do is try and bat for a day-and-a-half and give Mitchell Starc the ball when the lights are on.”
Broad is accompanied on the Three Lions’ Test tour of New Zealand by Notts’ Olly Stone – who took three wickets in England’s warm up fixture against a host XI – and Ben Duckett, fresh from a rich run-scoring return to national colours against Pakistan.
The first fixture begins on 16 February in Mount Maunganui, with the second and final Test commencing on 23 February at Basin Reserve.
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England at Trent Bridge
Trent Bridge will host three international matches in 2023, with the sole Test Match of the Women’s Ashes taking place at Nottinghamshire’s historic home, before England’s men face New Zealand and Ireland in IT20 and ODI contests respectively.
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