If Stuart Broad is a streak bowler, as is often said following one of his match-defining spells, then it is becoming harder to remember when the streak he is in the middle of actually started; it feels he has now moved beyond the point where he can be pigeonholed as merely a threat on his day.
As 2015 draws to a close, it is difficult to argue that the right-armer is now anything but a consistent world-class performer, with his 10 overs, three for 16 on the second day in Durban keeping the first Test intriguingly poised and taking him to 318 career victims and 54 in what has been a vintage year in whites.
In the absence of his regular new ball partner, Jimmy Anderson, missing here through a calf strain deemed too tight to risk, Broad is leading the attack once more and did so with distinction in England’s first innings with the ball; perhaps, when his senior colleague returns, this invisible armband might be shared in future. Because while his eight for 15 at Trent Bridge against Australia in August was a once-in-a-lifetime performance, Broad has also grown in stature and experience to the point where he stands on equal footing in terms of fear factor for opposing batsmen, if still 108 behind England’s record bowler in the wicket stakes.
Like Anderson, Broad, 29, is a deep thinking quick as opposed to one who simply wangs the ball down without care. And since his Test debut, against Sri Lanka in 2007, he has been absorbing and processing experiences to the point where there is now a how-to manual for most surfaces between his ears.
His leg-cutter has become one of the deadliest weapons in his armoury. Going slightly wide of the crease, the middle finger sliding down the left of the ball on release and a resulting deviation away from the centre of the bat that begs to take the edge.
It was the delivery that accounted for both Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers on the second day, with both men feathering to the grateful Jonny Bairstow behind the stumps. For De Villiers, the premier batsman in the South Africa lineup, it was a well‑executed plan that involved a wider line bowled to a seven-two field.
Broad’s removal of the opener Stiaan van Zyl, bowled second ball of the innings leaving a straight one, came from around the wicket – the angle of attack that Broad feels is the final piece in the jigsaw. It is Ottis Gibson, the England bowling coach whom he played alongside at Leicestershire before his move to Nottinghamshire in 2008, who has brought this to his game.
Asked if he felt at the peak of his powers, despite his 63 wickets in 2013 being his most profitable year to date, Broad replied: “Yes, I definitely feel like I’ve improved. Bowlers who I have grown up with say you are at your peak from 28 to 32 and I hope that is the case. I feel more experienced and that I know my game a bit more.
“My biggest thing has been my improvement to left-handers, bowling around the wicket, and I have to thank Ottis for that. I used to go over the wicket and didn’t have great control. But around the wicket, I feel if it does move away I might catch the edge but if it goes straight off stump is in play.”
Easily forgotten in all this is that the year did not begin with any guarantees for Broad, with the previous September having seen him undergo a not insignificant operation to address the burning pain of tendinitis in his right knee that had given him a year of sleepless nights.
While he declared himself ready for the World Cup that followed, the four wickets at 63 runs apiece that resulted – his tournament and the games leading up to it were his first competitive cricket for five months – suggested otherwise. He has since remained an outcast from the one-day and Twenty20 sides.
If England, in Test cricket, have reaped the benefit of the additional rest this has brought then the player himself is not in agreement. Broad is pushing hard behind the scenes for white ball cricket and the head coach, Trevor Bayliss, a man brought in to ensure such a dismal campaign is not repeated on home soil in 2019, has admitted a rethink may occur soon.
For now he remains a red-ball specialist, taking out such frustrations on Test batsmen, and one with both the experience of a veteran and at an age where there is the promise of plenty more to come. At at the end of 2015, you would wager he is sleeping rather soundly, too.
