In the Independent, David Lloyd speaks to Stuart Broad. The England allrounder, seen by many as a very central player in England's future, talks about a summer that changed his life and how he is desperate to help his country reach No. 1 in the world.
The stirring deeds of July and August – collectively and individually – are history now, however, and we will soon discover if they were the start of something big or, as happened four years ago when Australia were last sent home empty-handed, a terrific but pretty much isolated success story. "We are very conscious of the fact that winning the Ashes is not the be-all and end-all," says Broad. "We won them, brilliant, but now we have to build on that if we want to be the best team in the world."
Simon Wilde, in the Sunday Times, says Kevin Pietersen will do well to tread cautiously in South Africa, and not just until he is sure that his repaired Achilles tendon is sturdy enough to withstand everything he wants to put it through.
The main challenge he faces is that even before his lay-off he no longer looked the player he once was. His technique looked a mess, his footwork and decision-making were uncertain and he was not dictating terms as he once had. Opponents had wised up to him and a ploy of bowling to a fuller length on off-stump was paying dividends. The strategy was based on Pietersen’s high backlift — always a potential area of weakness early in an innings — and his penchant for playing across the line.
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