Stuart Broad will wear a protective boot on his injured right foot once the fifth day in Visakhapatnam has been completed and while the third Test in Mohali starting on Saturday may come too soon for the fast bowler, he remains confident of returning to full fitness and seeing out the remainder of the five-match series.
The strained tendon in his right foot sustained by the 30-year-old on the first day here has not prevented him putting in his most impressive performance in India to date, with figures of four for 33 in India’s second innings including an eight-over spell on the fourth morning that defied any pain.
Broad said: “It’s been a pretty sore Test. I think in my second over I dived for the ball and my toe slipped the wrong way and I’ve done some damage to my tendon which has been a bit awkward. But if you do that in the second over of a Test, you’ve only got one option and that’s to keep playing or you stuff the team a little bit. It has been physically quite a tough Test but it is part the job that you have to crack on.
“There are plans to get a moon boot on at the end of this game to try to take the load off the tendon for a few days. I’m a believer that everyone reacts slightly different to every injury so we’ll see how the body pulls up. We’ve 17 days before the fourth Test in Mumbai, which is quite a long time. I’ll try to get fit for the next one but hopefully I’ll definitely be fit for Mumbai.”
The doubt over Broad’s availability for the third Test, which is not the only fitness concern for England after spinner Zafar Ansari was unable to bowl in India’s second innings due to a back problem, is a blow for the tourists both with Mohali a ground that the team management had identified as their best option for four seamers this series and the skill he showed on a wearing pitch on the fourth morning.
Having already removed both openers the previous evening, two of his now trademark leg-cutters accounted for Ajinkya Rahane and Ravi Ashwin, the first of which reared on the No5 and saw him fence to Alastair Cook at slip before the latter was caught behind by Jonny Bairstow. With just three wickets in his previous four Tests in India, including the victorious 2012 tour when he flew home injured Broad was naturally pleased.
He said: “It felt like a decent time to bowl with a little bit of indifferent bounce and a bit of reverse swing. I did feel in wicket-taking rhythm. I actually felt a bit unlucky with a few nicks not going to hand. But it was nice to get more than one wicket in an innings in India for the first time. It’s been quite a tough hunting ground for me .
“I felt my leg-cutter was gripping that nice amount – like a half a bat’s width which brought the edge into play. In the first innings I didn’t get much value for my leg-cutter at all. It was nice experience to bowl on a fourth-day pitch where, as a taller bowler, it does give you a bit of indifferent bounce. When I first bowled in India, on first day pitches, I found it hard to extract any bounce or movement.”
On the match situation, which sees England 87 for two after 59.2 overs going into the fifth day and looking to bat out a further 90 for what would be a record fourth innings rearguard in India, Broad said: “We had a bad hour-and-a-half at the end of day two but since then we’ve shown a lot of character. To still be in this Test going into day five from the position we were in at the end of day two is a huge credit to us.
“A lot of Tests have been saved with teams going into the last day two wickets down. And that’s got to be our aim. Whether you’ve played two Tests or 130 Tests – like our two openers – it shows you can bat on that pitch if you apply yourself. If keep things quiet for the first 90 minutes, the pressure will only grow on the Indian bowlers.”
