Line, Length, and Leicestershire

To any bowler, spin or fast, nothing could be more humiliating than being hit 6 sixes in a row and that too in a group match at the ICC T20 Championship. An English cricketer, Stuart Broad, 35, is one of the few examples of a fast bowler who, in the early stage of his international cricket career, was welcomed with the 6-sixes blow in an over by Indian left-handed batsman Yuvraj Singh at the inaugural World Twenty20, held in Johannesburg in South Africa in 2007.

More so often, such a poor show of game may cost a newbie player his entire career. However, refuting the old-age proverb that a good start leads to a great finish, Broad clung to a determined, almost monomaniacal, spirit and took no time to turn an awful start into the most successful journey, which has now come to an end.

Keeping up with a track record of an eventful dichotomy from his birth, Stuart Broad, son of a former English cricketer Christopher Broad, started his life inning on a wing and a prayer as a 12-weeks premature baby survivor. Once hailed as the preterm arrival, today he is known as one the world’s top seam bowlers, outliving many of his counterparts who started their international careers with lots of fanfare but could not make it in the long run.

In his early days, Stuart Broad was referred to as the Next Big Thing of English cricket and rightly so. Known for his determination, persistence and profound sense of maturity, Broad has 604 Test wickets to his credit, only the second Englishman to take more than 500 Test wickets after James Anderson. Making his international debut in 2006 against Pakistan at the age of 20, he also became the world’s youngest bowler to take 400 Test wickets.

Following in the footsteps of his father Chris Broad, Stuart Broad started his domestic cricketing career at Leicestershire County Cricket Club as a left-handed opening batsman and won the Leicestershire Young Cricketers Batsman Award in 1996. With the passage of time, however, an all-round cricketer in him earned him a place as a fast bowler, this time opening the attack as a right-handed pacer, instead of opening the innings as a left-handed batsman. Having played his early cricket at Under-9 level at Leicester, he transferred to his father’s county, Nottinghamshire, in 2008.

Mastering the art of cricket with both hands, Broad was named in the ECB National Academy squad in 2005 and was picked in the England Under-19 squad to play against the Sri Lankan Under-19 team. The same year he was included as a replacement for James Anderson in the England ‘A’ team, touring the West Indies and then again against Sri Lanka, touring England in April 2006. After both series, Broad was shortlisted in the 25-man England Development Squad (EDS) for the 2006 international season and also named ‘Young Cricketer of the Year’ at the Cricket Writers’ Club Awards. Marking a meteoric rise to global fame, Broad was included in the England squad for the T20I and One-day Internationals against Pakistan in August 2006.

Other than claiming 604 wickets with a mind-blowing economy rate of 2.97 per over in 167 Test matches, he took 178 wickets in 121 ODIs with an economy rate of 5.26 per over and 65 wickets in 56 T20Is with an economy rate of 7.62. As a batsman, Stuart Broad played 244 innings in 167 Test matches, scoring 3662 runs, including 13 50s and a 100. In 2010, he brought up his maiden international century in a Test match against Pakistan at Lord’s, scoring 169 runs, the highest by any English batsman at No. 9.

The first innings of the fourth Test of the 2015 Ashes at Trent Bridge earned Stuart Broad his career best figures of 8 for 15. The match ended with the historical defeat of Australia in which they were bowled out for 60 in just 18.3 overs. Broad’s outstanding performance at Trent Bridge was named as Wisden’s Men’s Test spell of the decade.