Considered retirement after being axed for first West Indies Test: Stuart Broad

England fast bowler Stuart Broad has revealed that he considered taking retirement from the game after being left out of the national squad for the opening Test of the three-match series against West Indies.

The 34-year-old was surprisingly dropped for the side’s first Test against the Caribbean side–a decision which was considered by many as one of the reasons behind England’s four-wicket defeat in Southampton.

However, Broad was once again roped in the England Test squad and he played a key role in the side’s 2-1 series win, grabbing a total of 16 wickets across the last two matches.

Now, Broad revealed that the thoughts of bidding adieu to the game was 100 per cent in his mind when he was axed for the opening match.

“Were there thoughts of retirement going round my head? One hundred per cent. Because I was so down.I was expecting to play, which is always a bit of a dangerous thing in sport but I felt I deserved to play,” Sport24 quoted the Mail as saying.

Broad further said that he was feeling ‘really low’ during that period and his family as well as all-rounder Ben Stokes helped him through that time.

“I have not really told anyone this but I was so down that week of the first Test.I was really low. I was stuck in that hotel. I couldn’t go anywhere,” he said.

“Stokesy was brilliant. Stokesy knocked on my door on the Thursday night and stayed in the corridor to talk to me. He said: ‘This isn’t about cricket, but how are you, mate?’ That was very impressive for him to do.In this modern world, sometimes face-to-face comfort can get lost. I have always had a huge amount of respect for Stokes and I will be friends with him for life, but what he did almost added to that,” Broad added.

During the series, Broad became the second player from his country after pacer James Anderson to grab 500 wickets in the longest format of the game.

He achieved the feat on the fifth and final day of the series-deciding Test against the West Indies at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester which England won by 269 runs.

Overall, Broad became the seventh player to achieve the mark after Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan (800 wickets), Shane Warne (708), Anil Kumble (619), Anderson (589), Glenn McGrath (563) and Courtney Walsh (519).