By Andrew Wu
Perth: Fast bowling great Stuart Broad says his viral reaction to England’s game-changing batting collapse in Perth was completely genuine, and he has been left saddened by England’s first Test capitulation.
The vision of Broad with his eyes shut, next to a jubilant Australian legend Matthew Hayden in the Channel Seven commentary box, unable to watch as his country threw away the Perth Test in a calamitous 18 minutes, has become the defining image of the disbelief shared by millions of England supporters around the world.
The footage was taken after Joe Root had chopped Mitchell Starc onto his stumps, the fourth wicket to fall in a match-changing 19 deliveries after lunch on Saturday.
Broad’s reaction has been heartily received by Australian supporters, who see him as a pantomime villain after his involvement in numerous Ashes flashpoints during his 16-year Test career.
The post shared by Seven’s cricket account of Broad had been viewed 2.5 million times (by Monday morning AEDT), while Sky Sports’ post of the same footage had received more than 485,000 views.
There was nothing confected about Broad’s behaviour. He had forgotten there was a camera set up in the commentary box to capture such reactions.
“I think that was exactly how every England cricket fan felt, if I’m honest,” Broad, a commentator for Seven, told this masthead.
“You just wanted to close your eyes for 10 seconds and just hope it wasn’t true, what you were watching. That got clipped up and put on social media and turned into a bit of a GIF.
“I think that’s a genuine reaction and emotion, and that’s why we love Ashes cricket so much because it brings that emotion out of you whether you’re Australian or English. The game was moving every hour and you didn’t know what was going to happen.
“If the cricket continues with that pace and velocity and emotion, we’re in for a great summer, but England just need to grab those moments in the game slightly better.”
A part of England’s victorious campaign here in 2010-11 but also a member of the squads whitewashed in 2013-14 and hammered in 2017-18 and 2021-22, Broad is no stranger to the daunting atmosphere created by a rampant Australian crowd.
“I’ve seen it plenty of times in Australia when not just the Australian cricket team grab the game but the whole stadium does and you felt the whole energy of everything change,” Broad said.
“And you felt a wicket was coming every single ball here. How do we calm everything down, how do you soak it all up and get back into the game?
“It’s so difficult to do because you’re not just facing Mitchell Starc, you’re facing a 50,000 [strong] crowd and the whole energy becomes quite intimidating.”
Returning to the scene of the crime on Sunday to film a show for Seven dissecting the events of the day before, Broad spoke of his disappointment at England’s failure to ram home their advantage.
“I think my emotions this morning are almost a bit emotionally sad in the sense England got themselves in the best position here for 15 years at lunch yesterday, 100 runs ahead, one wicket down,” Broad said.
“That’s the time when you thought, ‘Will they grab hold of this game and move it forward?’
“You have to give huge credit to what Australia did. They changed their plans, they went a bit wider, but England didn’t manage to cope with the change.
“Once Australia opened the door they just sprinted straight through it and bashed it down.”
Broad played 15 Tests under England captain Ben Stokes. He said he had never seen Stokes as unsure on the field as he appeared during Head’s blitz.
“Travis Head’s played one of the greatest Ashes knocks I’ve ever seen,” Broad said. “I think England were a bit shell-shocked by what came their way. They wouldn’t have planned for Travis Head to open the batting so you could tell the tactics and plans were slightly off.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen Ben Stokes out in the middle of a Test match going, ‘I’m not 100 per cent sure what to do here’, and that’s a huge credit to how Travis Head went about his business.”
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