Veteran England pacers James Anderson and Stuart Broad share a great bond with each other. The duo has played together for more than a decade. Stuart Broad announced his retirement recently during the final Test of the 2023 Ashes. James Anderson shared that he wasn’t surprised with the decision, as Broad considered retiring earlier as well.
Stuart Broad has had an illustrious career for England. He is among the best to have ever played for England. Before the fourth day of the final Test, the pacer announced that he will retire from the sport after the match. James Anderson revealed that Broad had contemplated retirement last summer, but Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum convinced the pacer to carry on.
“Stuart told me about his retirement over a coffee before we got on the team bus for the third day’s play. I was a bit shocked initially but when it sank in, it was not a surprise. He considered it last summer but Baz and Stokesy managed to talk him out of it,” Anderson wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
“Then if you look back on the Ashes series, as he said himself, it was the perfect way to go out. It was nice we did not go out at the same time together as well. We have always been put in a bracket as a partnership but he is in his own right, one of the best bowlers England has ever produced so he deserved his own send-off,” he added.
Stuart Broad has taken 604 wickets in 167 Test matches, at an average of 27.68. He has twenty-five-wicket hauls and three ten-wicket hauls to his name. The pacer also has 178 ODI wickets and 65 wickets in T20Is. He played a key role in England’s comeback in the 2023 Ashes, taking 22 wickets in the series.
I have been his coach and he has been my coach: James Anderson talks about his bond with Stuart Broad
James Anderson’s partnership with Stuart Broad has been a lethal bowling combination. The pair picked over 1000 wickets in Test cricket, including 46 five-wicket hauls and six 10-wicket hauls. James Anderson shared that the duo complemented each other well, and were each other’s coach in the game. He wrote,
“On a professional level, Stuart leaves a big hole for me. We didn’t realise it at the time. But when we were young, we were in direct competition so we raised our standards to compete.”
“When we started playing together we complemented each other and understood the other’s game, how we were trying to take wickets and what we could do to help that. As the years have gone on, we have bought into our respective games. I have been his coach and he has been my coach,” he added.
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