England’s Stuart Broad in Australia gearing up for the World Cup
England’s pace bowler Stuart Broad has his eyes set on the ultimate prize, the 2011 World Cup, as he recovers from an abdominal injury that forced him out of the Ashes series that his team won by a
convincing 3-1 margin.
Broad is in Australia, where he is recuperating. He has regained almost full fitness, yet despite the wishes of England captain Andrew Strauss, he is not likely to feature in the last two games of the
England/Australia ODI series as a precautionary measure.
"I don't think the doctors will even let Straussy ask that question," he said. "I'm keen to play but I don't think it will happen. I've been unfortunate to miss the last seven weeks but we have got
a huge amount of cricket coming up so this little break might just help me fire on all cylinders for the next year or so.”
Broad has been one of the foremost performers in the England squad in the last 12 months. He played a pivotal part in the T20 World Championship win in the Caribbean and followed that with a world record
partnership with Jonathan Trott for the eighth wicket in the last match of the ill-fated home Test series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 (in Lord’s.)
He bowled well in both the Gabba and Adelaide Tests against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, but injured himself on the last day of the win at Adelaide and had to fly home.
The lanky right-arm pacer and left-handed batsman stated that the latest training session went well for him and made him confident of recovering well before the World Cup, which starts on the 19th of
February.
"I'm probably a little bit ahead of schedule. I probably bowled at 50-60 percent yesterday and pulled up fine this morning. Hopefully by the end of the Australia tour I'll have come off near a full
run-up, my aim is to try and play the first warm-up game of the World Cup so I'm hopeful of that,” he said.
The World Cup will pose a big challenge for the masters of the game who are yet to win the coveted title despite featuring in every event since the inception of the tournament in 1975. Outside of South
Africa - that was only readmitted to international cricket on the eve of the 1992 World Cup - England remains the only major Test team to have not won the tournament even once.
Broad hopes that he will play a leading role in England’s win in the tournament. The T20 win was a big boost to the limited-over format of the game there and Broad was one of the bowlers who was instrumental
in the win through his variety, especially the slower bouncer that makes run-making extremely tough.
Broad and the rest of the English bowling attack will have a real baptism of fire when they travel to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 to play their group matches. The wickets there are tailor-made for the batsmen and unless
the bowlers can withstand the onslaught with some clever variations, the game becomes extremely difficult for them.
Along with Broad, the English fans will be relying on the likes of James Anderson, Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shehzad in the tournament. Youngster Chris Woakes has also been a real emerging star; he has
impressed cricket pundits with his ability of swinging the ball at a sharp pace. Most recently, his 6-wicket haul against Australia in the 5th ODI – which also earned him a man-of-the-match status – made the cricketing world sit up and notice his
talents.
The pacers will be backed by spinners Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy, with Swann in particular being an integral part of his team’s plans. However, like Broad, Bresnan, Shehzad and Swann are all nursing
injuries ahead of the premier tournament.
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