Veteran England seamer Stuart Broad hopes this year’s Ashes series can produce the same stratospheric buzz that the famous 2005 series managed to attain. Eighteen years ago, England took the cricketing world by storm by coming up trumps against a powerhouse Australian team, a triumph that utterly captured the nation’s imagination.
“I feel like I’ve experienced so much Ashes cricket I can sit here and say ‘actually I really want it to be a tight series’,” Broad told in an interview with DailyMail. “I want the game to grow and I want people to love Test cricket and the way the England team are playing. It’s fun and if kids watch it they will want to play.
“So, what would be better than to be coming here to the Oval at 2-2 with the Ashes on the line and all the intrigue that would come with it. How amazing would that be?”
The last Ashes series held in England ended on an even keel, thereby allowing Australia to retain the urn. Broad, however, cleared that hoping for a fiercely contested series didn’t mean taking away from the hyper-aggressive edge that the Ben Stokes – Brendon McCullum regime has managed to infuse into the current Test side. England have won 10 out of their last 12 Tests, thanks to an ultra-positive brand of cricket.