England’s shattering 3-0 series defeat by Pakistan has left the world’s No 1 Test team licking their wounds. All-rounder Stuart Broad talks us through the post-mortem as the squad aim to take revenge in the one-dayers.
The inquest
It's not hard to pinpoint the major reason why we weren’t successful in the Test series and that was our batting against spin. You’re not going to win too many Tests being 200 for five at best and the thing that has disappointed the guys the most is that we made the same mistakes in each game.
As professional sportsmen you pride yourselves on learning from your mistakes and we didn’t react quickly enough here. We haven’t turned into a bad team because we did a lot of things extremely well. Even though we were never at our best we would have won in Abu Dhabi but for an inept batting performance chasing a small target and then we had Pakistan 50 for seven at lunch on the first day in Dubai. You have to capitalise on those positions. We had our chances.
Harsh lesson: England capitulated to their first series whitewash to PakistanBowling at my best
I don’t think I’ve ever bowled better for England, to be honest. Certainly my line was the best it has ever been. Ottis Gibson, our old bowling coach, always used to say it’s not what the ball does, it’s where it does it from, and I was able to get seam movement from around off stump here. I was really happy with that.
But it’s a big reminder that it means nothing unless you’re winning. We beat India 4-0 and I had a bit of success with the ball, so it meant a huge amount that I was able to contribute to a winning cause. I probably bowled better here but it means a huge amount less.
Coming over here we were expecting high scores with it being difficult to take 20 wickets to win a Test, so for us to take 50 wickets as a unit while not really having the opportunity to take the other 10 is something the guys are pretty proud of. But it means nothing if you’re not winning games.
In fine fettle: Broad claimed 13 wickets in the three-Test seriesPlanning pays off
David Saker, our bowling coach, has been a great addition to the ranks and we were fortunate to go to Potchefstroom in South Africa before Christmas for a training camp that got us up to speed. We set our bowling standards for the trip when we had the ICC XI in trouble in the first warm-up match and continued all the way through.
Then it was unknown territory for a modern England side to play two seamers and two spinners and I think it’s been a real success on these wickets. We can have a real go at the batsmen and the spinners can come on and hold for the middle period and take wickets. Monty Panesar’s return has been terrific and credit to county cricket for that because he has worked hard there and taken a lot of good wickets.
The county game can get slagged off but a lot of good work is done there. It’s just important for the team that you put bowling and batting performances together in the same game and we didn’t do that.
Welcome back: Panesar made a superb return to the Test fold, claiming 14 wicketsSurprised by Pakistan?
Pakistan didn’t surprise us. We expected them to be good and we know they’re a very dangerous team. We prepared for Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman but our batsmen just didn’t play them well and they know that.
We had individual plans for those bowlers but we couldn’t execute them. It’s something we have to improve on because it was the difference between the teams. We got out to balls we shouldn’t have got out to.
Tackling technology
The decision-review system is the same for both sides and there were moments when both felt aggrieved by it. I still think it’s a brilliant system but there are still doubts to me over the accuracy of HotSpot and Hawk-Eye.
There were moments when decisions were given and it looked completely different to what Hawk-Eye was suggesting. I think investment is needed in the technology to make it foolproof but the players are totally behind it. It’s helping make decisions that have huge consequences.
For instance, I think it’s true to say that Alastair Cook was correctly reprieved by the system a couple of times in Australia and went on to break all sorts of records. If there wasn’t DRS he would have averaged something like 18 and wouldn’t have an MBE!
It changes lives. We have to get as many decisions right as we possibly can. It brings spinners into the equation, too, which has to be a good thing. Graeme Swann is close to impossible for left-handers to play now and that’s because he can hit them on the front pad and beat them on the outside and get decisions. It brought Rehman into the game against our right-handers too.
Left-leaning: Swann is a danger for left-handersBeating the blues
Deflated, yes, because no-one saw 3-0 coming and it was a huge hammer blow to us. The lowest point was the end of the Abu Dhabi Test because we worked so hard to get into a winning position only to throw it away.
It was inexcusable. But we have to bounce back and that’s where we get tested. We have a new chapter now in the one-day series and we’re coming off the back of a 5-0 one-day defeat by India in these sorts of conditions so there’s a lot to challenge us.
Then there will be three Twenty20 matches, which is a huge advantage for me as captain because we can get the guys together and work on something rather than having them for just one match a season. We’ll learn a lot from the next three weeks of this tour.
Testing times
We know that in England, Australia and South Africa we are a good team. But the series against India and Pakistan have shown us that in subcontinental conditions we are average.
We can’t worry about South Africa taking our No 1 Test status by beating New Zealand next month. If we do lose it we’ll get it back, I promise you that. This is a setback, but I can’t remember any group of England bowlers being as threatening in the subcontinent and we know that if we gets runs we will win Tests here.
Coming out of the darkness: Broad and England are determined to get back to winning waysSad loss
I was shocked and saddened during the last Test to hear about the death of Nottingham Forest owner Nigel Doughty. He was a lovely guy who always welcomed me to the club. I’m a massive Forest fan and what he did for my club was huge. I saw him in Australia during the Ashes and he let me have his personal internet feed to the matches while I was abroad. He was a very kind and generous man and he’ll be sadly missed.
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