Thaindian News

Southampton, Sep 5 (IANS) England speedster Stuart Broad says his team will continue to test the Indian batsmen with the short ball in the second One-day International at the Rose Bowl cricket ground here Tuesday.

Broad added to India’s injury woes when his first ball to Rohit Sharma during the first ODI led to a fracture of the batsman’s right index finger, eventually ruling him out for the remainder of the series.

Senior players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir were earlier declared unfit for the five-match series after they suffered injuries in Test matches.

Broad said he felt bad after seeing Rohit in pain but injuries are part and parcel of the “brutal” sport.

“It is a brutal sport,” Broad told reporters here.

“You never like to see a fellow professional get injured. I would have thought he (Rohit) will be on a flight home and he has certainly been a dangerous player for them in the one-dayers. It is obviously a shame for him. But nothing as an England side could be better. It certainly hit him hard, and being out there we could hear his screams. When the physio got hold of him, it certainly looked badly dislocated.”

England’s Twenty20 captain is expecting another quick wicket at the Rose Bowl and therefore the frequent use of the short ball.

“Certainly going down to the Rose Bowl, the sand-based pitch in the middle that we have used for the Test before and a few of the ODIs is pretty quick, so it will be a tactic there if it plays the way we think it might,” he said.

On the tactics for the return ODI series in India, Broad added: “This is something that obviously we will have to change for India.

“We will need to use different skills out there with slower balls and yorkers and stuff. But you adapt to the conditions, so if it is going to be a fast, bouncy wicket, and you are a bowler who has got a good bouncer, you would certainly use it. Hopefully, the groundsman will help us out.”