England will strive for perfect balance during Ashes: Broad

BRISBANE - Right-arm fast bowler Stuart Broad has said England will strive for the perfect balance between work and play during the Ashes tour

After two days in Australia, Andrew Strauss’s team has undertaken two training sessions, the first gentle, the second thorough. Both were complemented, for about half the squad, by afternoon visits to local golf courses, with the captain prevailing.

“We’re very focused on not just settling into the tour but on hitting the ground running straight away,” the Telegraph quoted Broad, as saying.

He added: “Andy Flower has told us that when we’re in, we’re definitely going to work hard but that he’ll give us time to chill out and give us time to get mentally fresh for all of the games. It’s pretty much five back-to-back Tests so you do have to have a balance between cricket and off-the-field stuff.”

Broad also said that he often talked to his father and ex-England cricketer Chris about the Ashes, and what it felt like being part of the last England squad to win a Ashes series Down Under.

“Obviously I talk to him (Chris) about the cricket, but he says it is very important in Australia to get away from the cricket because it’s such a hectic tour,” said Broad junior.

He said: “To be able to switch your mind on and off so you are 100 per cent clued in to what you are doing is the key to succeeding here - that and getting 400 plus in the first innings and taking 20 wickets.”

“There are times when I go too far. But towards the end of last summer, I found a balance between letting the batsman know I’m there but without getting too involved,” Broad junior said. (ANI)