(Cricket news) Stuart Broad will be playing his 8th Ashes series as England will face Australia tomorrow for the 1st test at Gabba. Broad has played 149 test matches for England and has picked up 524 wickets which is the 6th highest. Broad is currently the highest wicket taker in the Ashes series among active players with 118 wickets from 32 matches, he has the pace and the face which does not age.
The 35 year old has the fourth best figures in the series when he caused trauma among the Aussies in 2015, he took 8 wickets for 15 runs in 57 balls which had 5 maidens. Over the past 21 years, only two bowlers have taken more than 10 wickets in a match with Shane Warne doing it twice and also took 12 wickets in 5th test Oval in 2005. The other bowler is Broad who took 11 wickets in 2013 at Chester-le-Street. In the 4th test he took a five wicket haul in the first innings and followed it up with 6 wickets to complete a 74 run victory over the Australians.
The 2009 Ashes series was one of the top performances by Broad as he scored a patient 37 runs in 69 balls in the first innings and then took a 5 wicket haul for 37 runs in 12 overs. The ball was swinging in towards the right handers as he bowled around 140 km/ hour which could not be handled by Shane Watson and even Ricky Ponting. He then took the wicket of Michael Hussey as the ball came back onto him, his next victim was the highest run scorer for Australia in the series Michael Clarke as he was caught by Jonathan Trott. Australia was down to 4-93 as all the wickets were taken by Broad, his final wicket in the innings came when he bowled Brad Haddins with an outswinger.
Broad has the best figures recorded by a pacer as the top three are by spinners, he will be looking forward to causing more harm to the hosts as the fans will also be ready to face the visitors. The tall pacer is into his 15th year of international cricket and will become the 10th player to play 150 tests. Only Sir Alastair Cook and James Anderson have played more tests than Broad among the England players, the first test will begin tomorrow and Broad will be expected to play for the first time since August.
Also read: England gear up to take on the Gabba challenge without Jimmy Anderson and Johnny Bairstow
