When a bowler is whacked for six sixes in an over during the start of his international career, the emotional toll it takes on him cannot be quantified. Confidence is shattered and the end seems near, truth be told, the task to revive and find the lost confidence couldn't get any harder. For Stuart Broad, the adversity was just the chance he needed to rise like a phoenix at a time when most people counted him out.
Broad was just 21 years old when India's Yuvraj Singh unleashed six sixes in the Englishman's over during the 2007 T20 World Cup. In the same year, the right-arm pacer represented England for the first time in Test cricket. It was the beginning of something magical, a career that would define an era of cricket and a partnership that would shape the Three Lions' path for the next one-and-a-half decade.
Broad's ride from agony to ecstasy
Broad and red-ball cricket were made for each other, and the pacer left no stone unturned in order to leave an everlasting impression on the game's hardest format. Every time he ran in to bowl, he had a wind in his back. He roared in delight with every wicket, he appealed with all his might for every lbw decision and celebrated every wicket like it was his first.
For the last 15 years, Broad scripted numerous Test wins for the Three Lions and his partnership with James Anderson became synonymous with England in Test cricket.
As Broad prepares to unleash hell on opposition batters for one last time in Test cricket on July 30 (Sunday), it couldn't have come in a better setting. For the romanticism aspect, Broad's career will end against Australia, a team that he has tormented more than any other bowler in the Ashes.
With 602 wickets in 166 matches, Broad is already the second-greatest fast bowler of all time, trailing only his good mate Anderson. From being hit for six sixes in an over to 600 wickets in Tests, Broad's journey has been nothing short of remarkable.
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