London: Former England captain Nasser Hussain has hailed Stuart Broad for retiring at the top of his game after the veteran pacer enjoyed a memorable end to his career in his final international match.
Broad dropped a bombshell at the end of Day 3 of the final Ashes Test against Australia by announcing his decision to retire from international cricket at the end of the series.
With a jaw-dropping 604 wickets as a pacer in the longest format, Broad walked into the sunset as one of the greatest players in modern-day Test cricket.
Even in his last series, he finished with 22 wickets, the highest for any England bowler at this year’s Ashes.
While announcing his retirement, Broad expressed that he could have carried on playing but chose not to.
Speaking on the latest episode of The ICC Review, Hussain praised the English pacer’s decision to call time while he was still at the top of his game.
“Well, that’s the point,” Hussain said.
“I think retirement is, you’d want people to ask, ‘Why not a little bit more?’
“You retire when people are saying, ‘Why are you retiring? rather than ‘Why not?’
“When people start saying that you should be retiring, then you’ve probably gone a bit too far. So I think he’s timed it perfectly. Two days to go, came down to us at Sky (Sports) and said, ‘Yep, I’m done’. And then he had two days.
“But the one thing with Stuart, you know, because he announced his retirement, it’s not like I’m done, I’m checking out. You know Stuart Broad is going to want to win. He’s always been a winner.”
It was a fairytale ending to Broad’s career, both with the bat and ball.
Off his last ball with the bat, he smashed Mitchell Starc for a maximum, much to the delight of the parochial English crowd at The Oval.
Then, on the final day in the crunch final minutes of the last Ashes Test, Broad delivered as he had done so often in his storied 17-year-long international career.
The 37-year-old scalped the final two wickets to clinch a memorable game for England and help them draw the series 2-2.
Hussain recalled the final few moments of Broad’s career.
“And going back to your initial question of it, is it winning or is it entertainment? Broad does that spot on,” Hussain added.
“He loves the theatre and the entertainment. But more than that, he loves winning. And the script was unbelievable. You know, left-handers on strike. He’s been all over left-handers.
“Last ball he faces in Test cricket, he hits out of the ground for a six. Last ball he bowls in Test cricket, he gets Carey out.
“Last Ashes… he’s born for Ashes cricket. And he wins his last Ashes Test. It was unbelievable scenes at The Oval.”
–IANS