England's Twenty20 batting unit is 'scary' - Stuart Broad

Stuart Broad

Referring to his team’s batting line-up as “scary”, England Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad sounded hopeful of turning the tables on Australia in the 3-match T20 series.

England have had a disastrous couple of months in Australia losing both the Test and ODI series. While they were whitewashed in the Ashes, the ODI team managed to register a solitary win, thereby ending the series 1-4 in favour of Australia. With the likes of Michael Lumb, Alex Hales and Luke Wright coming into the team, it is true that England have got some really aggressive players in the T20 set up.

Stuart Broad said: “We’ve got some unbelievable strikers in our side. If we can lay a platform with the likes of Lumb, Hales, Wright – and see how they strike a ball – then you’ve got Morgan and Buttler coming in. It’s a pretty scary batting line up. I’d imagine the three games are going to be pretty exciting to watch and hopefully we can let our skills to do the talking because, if we do, I think there’ll be some high scores.”

Having been involved in the Big Bash league in Australia, almost all the England players are in touch with the game. On Dernbach, the only player who has not had any match practice, Broad said: “Jade’s the only one who’s not played a lot of cricket but all the guys have been moving and playing so that’s really good. And there’s a confidence as well; Morgan’s been scoring runs, Buttler’s been scoring runs and Wright’s probably been one of the standout players in the Big Bash. There’s a lot of confidence going into this series, and we know T20′s a big confidence game. If you believe you can hit the ball over the ropes then generally you do.”

“I’m really excited to captain this group of players because they are a group of players that always want to improve and I think you need that in international cricket. But also a group of players who are not shy and are not scared to take the brave options.”

Even though the limited-overs coach Ashley Giles called Kevin Petersen a “million-pound asset” in the T20 format, Broad doesn’t want to get into a discussion about Kevin Pietersen.

The England captain said: “I think you can see from my position it would be hard to comment on that with the team I’ve got in that changing room with a T20 coming tomorrow to win here. The focus is purely on what we do in Australia and once we’ve got these three games, and hopefully a series win, under our belt we can focus on planning more on the World Twenty20.”

Responding to how the Australian fans have treated him in the past couple of months, the fast bowler concluded by saying: “It’s actually a bit disappointing now – it’s getting less and less. You have to really listen for them now. In Brisbane I thought if it continued like that I wouldn’t have any ear drums left. To be fair it’s been quite good fun; I’ve enjoyed it and enjoyed the banter with the crowd.”

“It’s not been frightful general, abuse. I feel like I’ve embraced it okay, it’s not really affected my performance particularly, I don’t think. And there are not many people in the world who can say they’ve been called a “W” word by 40,000 people. So, I’ve got that one.”