The ongoing Ashes series has been a frustrating one for the English tourists on many fronts. If the glaring 3-0 score line going against them wasn’t disappointing enough, England’s tour has been marred with frequent player injuries and the abysmal form of their main batsmen. Many would assume that the end of the final day-night test match in Hobart- regardless of whatever outcome that game produces- would bring some much-needed respite for captain Joe Root and his countless beleaguered English fans.
Stuart Broad in-and-out of England team despite good performances
One player who has had a particularly upsetting time Down Under on this tour is Stuart Broad. The legendary fast-bowler only got to feature in two of the first four test matches, which disallowed him from bowling on the spicy and bouncy wickets of the Gabba and the MCG. Considering the rich vein of form Broad has shown in his Ashes outing, those omissions seem even more pernicious to England’s cause than they already proved to be.
Broad is currently placed 6th on the series wicket-takers’ list, with 13-scalps from 3 matches. He is only behind Mark Wood as far as England bowlers are concerned. There was also his gritty 35-ball innings in the Sydney test match that enabled the tourists to salvage a draw and avoid a whitewash. Clearly, England’s policy of shuffling their fast-bowlers every alternate game has been a flawed and unwise approach.
The frustration of being moved in-and-out of the side finally manifested on Broad’s demeanour during the second day of the test match at Hobart. While bowling the 63rd over, Broad stopped just before completing his run-up to express his vexations on the moving camera rover behind the wickets.
Broad yells at the broadcasters to stop moving the distracting robot
“Stop moving the robot!”, Broad yelled loud enough for the stump-mics to pick up. Apparently, he was getting a tad too distracted with the moving ground camera behind the batter. Cricket.com.au even posted the video of the incident on their Twitter feed. Here’s the footage:
Not a fan of the @FoxCricket rover, then? 🤖#Ashes pic.twitter.com/1ctxyHdVC7
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 15, 2022
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Distractions or no distractions, Broad has been on-song in the Hobart test match and has picked up 6 wickets to give England a slim chance at ending the tour with a win. They have a formidable target of 271 to chase down with 2 days remaining.
Brief scores: England 11/0 and 188 need 260 runs to win vs Australia 303 and 155.
