England paceman Stuart Broad has said that as bowlers his side would be going into the Ashes with “minimal preparation” but the high intensity that comes with playing the historic series “will provide a spike in our conditioning”.
England’s preparations for the Ashes tour have taken a heavy beating thanks to inclement weather disrupting their warm-up matches.
“I’ve come back from this calf injury hungry and I feel like something is building here,” Broad wrote in his column for Daily Mail. “We can’t get away from the fact that we are probably the worst prepared England side to travel to Australia in the modern era: the rain has stuffed us out of sight, we have guys who have only faced eight balls in match conditions and bowlers who have only sent down 10 overs.”
Broad will be playing international cricket after a long time after he was sidelined with a calf injury, but having recovered completely, the fast bowler said that he’ll play “in one or two matches”.
“”As bowlers, we are going from minimal preparation to high intensity and that will provide a spike in our conditioning. Physically we are nowhere near ready for Test cricket; I don’t think any one of us on either side will be where we want to be just because of the virtually non-existent build-up to this series,” wrote Broad.
“But in Covid times it is what it is and we have to ready ourselves as best we can. To be honest, we moved to the Gabba for practice on Sunday and suddenly the Ashes feels real. It hasn’t done while we’ve been warming up at club grounds.”
