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London, Feb.2 (ANI): England fast bowler Stuart Broad has stepped up his bid for fitness with the England squad in Australia.

In an article for the Daily Mail, Broad writes that over the past few weeks that he has been away, he has tried to get himself match fit again.”I was lucky that I didn’t just spend time with Notts. I also trained with Nottingham Forest, the team I support, and that kept me in a dressing-room environment. The banter there got me through January and I saw Forest beat Derby 5-2 in as good an atmosphere as I can ever remember at a sporting contest. That was a bit of a silver lining,” Broad says. “My stomach muscle injury is coming on really well now. I think I’m a little ahead of schedule. It’s frustrating because it only seems to hurt when I bowl, so I can only judge whether it’s better when I actually bowl some overs. Currently I’m bowling at around 50 or 60 per cent of my potential and I think it will progress quickly now,” he adds.”I might have missed out on the last three Tests of the Ashes but when I think back and assess my contribution, I think of the 18 months before the series and the progress that was made to bring the team to where we are now in Test cricket. I still feel part of what happened, even though I missed out on three pitches at the end of the Ashes that I would have quite enjoyed,” Broad says.

“My rehabilitation started once I got back to England. It has been pretty full on since December 27,” he said.

He said that he was looking forward to playing in one or both of England’s World Cup warm-up games in a couple of weeks - in Dhaka against Canada and Pakistan - to be ready for that first game proper in Nagpur against the Netherlands on February 22. (ANI)