When you retire from this great game, you will be judged in different ways but the way I will judge Stuart Broad is for performances like he gave against Australia on Monday evening.
Most people will look at the number of Test wickets he has taken, and he is now just 13 shy of 600, but I ask: did you give it your all every single day you put those boots on? He is one who can say that he always gave it his absolute everything.
Broad was on his knees with two balls to go in that spell, he had been sprinting back to the end of his mark to beat the clock and bowl one more over, and that for me is all you can ever ask of an England cricketer.
With him, he strains every sinew, gives every ounce of effort and he’s just going to give it everything until he hangs up his boots.
His sense of theatre, his sense of occasion, his sense of when to lift his game, and his sense of how to get great players out is second to none.
You will be judged in different ways when you retire from cricket but Stuart Broad will be remembered as someone who always gave his all
The England seamer produced one of his famous spells on Monday evening against Australia
He dismissed Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith but was left wanting even more from his eforts
In that final hour of day four, he dismissed Marnus Labuschagne, and Steve Smith on a pitch that he himself called pudding.
The game was drifting away from England when Ben Stokes called him back into the attack and it was a measure of his class that he responded to the moment.
The game was drifting away from England when Ben Stokes brought Broad back on
The best cricketers know how to change the course of the game. Some people shy away from such situations, but Broad revels in them. He’s a truly remarkable cricketer.
We are going to miss him and his new-ball partner Jimmy Anderson when they’re gone because they been so good.
You can see Broad cares about this, his ninth and possibly last Ashes series, as much if not more than his previous eight and his record against Australia is what he will be remembered for.
He might have questioned himself a few times in the last couple of years when he was left out of England teams, but he has lost none of his competitive edge and what’s more, he’s upped his skill levels.
Even at 36, he went away and worked behind the scenes to perfect the outswinger that did for Labuschagne and Smith in this fourth innings.
You can see him meticulously, placing the ball in his hand at the end of this run.
We’ve seen some of the greats do similar things when their own pace dropped – think of someone like Curtly Ambrose, who was just as tough when he was towards the end of his career, because of how skilful he was.
And if you want to know how much Broad puts his body through, you should have seen his feet after the first innings.
Shoeless, he walked towards me, his whole foot strapped, toenail falling off, blood seeping out of the bandages.
That is a side of him that you don’t see. Can you imagine him getting out of bed today? I’ll tell you how he’s going to feel – knackered.
But he will do it because he is Stuart Broad and he’s done it for the past 15 years.
This time, he didn’t get David Warner with the new ball, and I thought Warner was better in the second innings.
He is someone who can quickly take a game away from you and I thought he got his tempo, his body language and his intent spot on.
David Warner was better in the second innings before being dismissed by Ollie Robinson
The opener can quickly take the game away form you but he got everything spot on until his dismissal
The same was to be said of Usman Khawaja, and when you are chasing a middling score like 281 on a good pitch, you need to look to score, not just sit in.
When Warner is batting like that he also gets into better positions. He has also changed his technique a little bit to stay slightly leg side of the ball, which allows him to access it when it is straight. Previously, his pads were getting in the way, making him vulnerable to LBW via the nip backer four years ago.
Because he was looking to pick the bowlers off to leg, the threat against him was always to attack that fourth or fifth stump line, the area in which Ollie Robinson exposed him in the end.
On a pitch which isn’t doing too much, you need to hold your line and let him come to you.
Off-spinner Moeen Ali will have a huge role to play on the final day for England at Edgbaston
He has, however, been struggling with a finger injury, and his bowling may be ristricted
With the way the final day is set up, Australia needing 174 more runs with seven wickets intact, I still think England’s off-spinner Moeen Ali has a massive role to play.
They’ve still got a couple of left-handers to come in Travis Head and Alex Carey, and the way he troubled Cameron Green in the first innings – he should gave had him stumped second ball and bowled him through the gate – means this is still in the balance.
He was clearly struggling with that wounded spinning finger in the evening session, as shown by the fact he was forced off the field after sending down a full toss and two drag downs in his sixth over.
But England will need him and the rest of their attack to build on the inroads Broad made in the style only he can.
More Stories
Alex Carey hits teammate Todd Murphy with an icy snub at the fifth Ashes Test – leaving cricket fans stunned: ‘They must take it in turns to take his lunch money’
Steve Smith sends James Anderson a very cheeky message as Aussies form Ashes guard of honour for retiring England great Stuart Broad
Stuart Broad becomes the second player to hit his final ball in Test cricket for six as Usman Khawaja becomes leading run-scorer in the series