If the sporting gods are working on a Sunday, Stuart Broad will say farewell to Test cricket in a blaze of glory.
He will leave the stage, headbanded, with arms pumping, tearing down the track, a trademark celebration-appeal in full swing. No one player has symbolised the modern Ashes rivalry better than Broad has.
While his late-career susceptibility to pace might have seen him take a tactical backward step at the crease, Broad has never taken a mental backward step against the old enemy. That’s why he has never regretted not walking during the first Ashes Test of 2013 at Trent Bridge, despite edging to slip.
It earned him a notoriety Down Under that has barely diminished over the decade that followed. But you can bet your last Aussie dollar that Pat Cummins and his team-mates will give 37-year-old Broad the guard of honour he deserves when this final Test of a compelling Ashes series comes to an end either on Sunday or on Monday.
And thanks to some beautiful batting from Zak Crawley, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow in front of a Saturday full house at the Oval, there is a good chance Broad will bow out with a win. And there is a good chance Broad will end the series as the leading wicket-taker, which makes his decision to retire from Test cricket all the more surprising.
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This is a whole-hearted cricketer whose career appeared to have new life breathed into it by Bazball. But you have to assume he wanted to go out while still worth his place in the team. And he is still worth his place in this team, eight years after one of the greatest spells of fast bowling not only in Ashes history but in Test match history.
Who can forget that eight for 15 against Australia at Trent Bridge? And in this game, Broad took his 150th Ashes wicket (at the ground where he really announced himself with a five-for against the Aussies in 2009), having taken his 600th Test wicket at Old Trafford in the fourth Test.
Broad and his great old partner Jimmy Anderson are the only two fast bowlers to claim more than 600 wickets. Broad made his England debut in a one day international against Pakistan in 2007 and his Test debut against Sri Lanka in the same year. He was once a genuine all-rounder, a back-handed compliment he would not baulk at.
Broad is an Ashes legend and deserves a fitting farewell at the Oval (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)His 169 against Pakistan in August, 2010, is the second-highest score by a number nine in Test history. Under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, he has become a ‘nighthawk’ with the bat. But he soon established himself as a world-class fast bowler, a hat-trick against India at Nottingham in 2011 another highlight of the formative stages of his career.
This Test is his 167th and last and as he is retiring from all cricket, we will not see the ultimate crowd-rouser in an England shirt again. He played 121 one day internationals for his country and 56 T20 matches. Across all formats for England, he has taken 845 wickets. Hopefully, there will be a few more in his farewell spells when Australia chase an unlikely target for victory in this fifth and final Test.
He has had off-days in an England shirt, of course he has. In 2007, he was hit for six sixes in an over by India’s Yuvraj Singh in a T20 World Cup game. But adversity has never fazed this most effervescent and determined character.
And after his outstanding career, those lucky enough to have tickets for the final day or two days of this Test match might well witness something special. Let’s hope those sporting gods are working … because Stuart Broad deserves a fitting farewell.
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