No current England cricketer - even Kevin Pietersen - has been vilified as much as Stuart Broad this summer.
Up until the start of this Test, he has had a wretched summer - bowling poorly and attracting attention for all the wrong reasons - namely regular shows of dissent and his irritating habit of celebrating before turning to appeal to the umpire.
We have received many comments and Tweets pleading for Broad to be dropped, but up until the start of this series, we had resisted the temptation to join in.
We remembered The Oval and Durban in 2009, where two devastating spells by Broad had helped England regain the Ashes and win a famous victory against South Africa.
But the return of Tim Bresnan to the squad after injury was (or so we thought) the perfect opportunity to give Broad a chance to regain some form in County Cricket.
Thankfully we were wrong and the selectors chose to stick with Broad with Andy Flower given him a clear instruction to forget all the rubbish about being England's enforcer.
Broad has bowled a fuller length at Lord's - just as he did in those aformentioned Test at The Oval and Durban - and has been rewarded handsomely. Indeed, he has been England's best bowler thus far - although Chris Tremlett's remarkable battle with Sachin Tendulkar showed the extent of Tremlett's rapid elevation to the top echelon of current Test fast bowlers.
Broad certainly doesn't lack talent - his innings of 74 not out showed once again his all-round credentials - but he does seem to lack a bit between the ears if the amount of short-pitched bowling in the Sri Lanka series is anything to go by. So Flower's timely reminder and Broad's admirable response has probably saved his immediate place in the XI.
More of the same from Broad today and England should be celebrating a 1-0 lead come the end of what has been a truly engrossing Test match.
Where next?
Kevin Pietersen, Wally Hammond, Len Hutton and Test double hundreds
Zaheer Khan: He came, he saw, he conquered....he got injured
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Yep -- I'd have dropped Broadie for this match, but I'm delighted to say I'd have been wrong, with hindsight. I'd actually have given him man of the match, to be honest, although any of Pietersen, Prior or Broad would have deserved it.
He deserved more wickets than he got (you have to wonder if his histrionics go against him with Billy Bowden, and, of course, we dropped three sitters off Broad), and although the BBC are running the headline "Anderson inspires England victory", I think Broad was the real inspiration, and Jimmy's 5 owes almost as much to Broad as it does to Jimmy himself.
Posted by: wilo | Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 03:37