Winning Ashes in Australia would require big runs and not express pace, says Stuart Broad

The last time England won the Ashes in Australian soil was in their 2010-11 tour when they secured a 3-1 victory Down Under. Ever since that, England have twice visited Australia and have faced brutal defeats both times: 5-0 in 2013/14 and 4-0 in 2017/18. In the most recent Ashes competition, held last year, Australia were able to draw the series 2-2 in England and hence retained the urn.

With the English side visiting their biggest rivals in 2021-22, veteran pacer Stuart Broad believes that it’s the batsmen who need to step up and score big runs to able to defeat Australia in Australia. As opposed to focussing on getting fast bowlers with incredible speed in the team, Broad believes it’s the batsmen who need to fight and and put up at least 400 runs to be at par with the hosts.

“If you want to know what it takes to win Test matches in Australia, it’s not whether you have someone who can get up to 95mph. Glenn McGrath was still pretty useful coming up to his 37th birthday and bowling at 80mph when his team had 500 runs on the board,” Broad wrote in his column for the Mail on Sunday.

“We should take the focus off which bowlers are going to be selected for that series because it’s an irrelevant conversation if you’re going to be bowled out for 200. It’s equally irrelevant if you’re bowled out for 300. You need to be reaching the 400s.

“Look back at when England last won there in 2010-11: Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen all got big hundreds, scores of 150-plus. Ian Bell, Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior got hundreds, too. In all three wins, the team batted just once. Jimmy (Anderson), Tim Bresnan and Chris Tremlett bowled in the mid-80s and England made big totals,” added Broad.

The presence of the gigantic Steve Smith in the Australian team always makes it a challenge for their opponents, and especially at home where the batting giant averages 71.14. According to Broad, in order to put pressure on Smith it’s important for England to put up a huge score on the board.
“Steve Smith has batted against 90mph bowling throughout a career in which he averages the best part of 63. But what he hasn’t done often is go out to bat having been fielding for two days and the opposition having a huge score on the board. We need that mindset of keeping the opposition out there until the second evening,” he added.

The 34-year-old pacer recently became only the 7th bowler in cricket history to bag 500 wickets or more in Tests. England’s Man of the Series against West Indies, Broad bagged 29 wickets averaging 13.41 across five matches in this summer.