Seamer wants England to be more ruthless...
Thursday 9 June 2016 09:00, UK
Quick bowler Stuart Broad wants England to be feared by opposition teams and believes they need to be more ruthless, starting with the third Investec Test against Sri Lanka at Lord's.
England have already won the three-match series, courtesy of victories at Headingley and Chester-le-Street, but Broad insists the side will be going all out to record their first Test series whitewash since 2011.
"That comfort zone is a very dangerous place to be in sport," he told Sky Sports News HQ. "We know that we won the Ashes and lost the last Test match and won in South Africa then lost the last Test match.
"We've not been very good at stamping our authority on series and being ruthless. We're very aware that if we want to be the best team in the world then we've got to step up and raise our game even if the series is won or lost.
"We want to be a ruthless team, we want to be the team that people fear playing. I think you need a bit of that to be the best team in the world."
While reaching the Test No 1 ranking may be the goal for Alastair Cook's men, Broad insists that the team are well aware they have improvements to make.
"I don't think we've clean swept a series since 2011, when we beat India 4-0, so that's quite a long time as a team and shows that we've got a lot of areas to improve on," he added.
"We've played really well up at Headingley and Durham but there is still a lot of potential in this team that has been left out there slightly. There are areas we can certainly improve on and there's no better place to starting improving than at Lord's this week.
"Being at Lord's is a bonus, we're so well supported there and it's always a huge buzz to be there so that should certainly switch our minds on to put in a strong performance again."
One man who has started the summer in fine form is James Anderson, who passed 450 Test wickets in the second Test and has since replaced Broad as the world's No 1 ranked Test bowler.
"He beat me at golf this morning as well so I've had a tough week!" said Broad. "It's fantastic for the team that we've got two bowlers in the top three.
"I know when Trevor Bayliss took over he said he wanted more of our players to be up in the rankings because it means we'll be doing better as a team.
"It's great to see one of my great mates and bowling partners get to No 1 following Beefy (Sir Ian Botham) and Harmy (Steve Harmison) so he's delighted. I'm sure he's not said that, he's not really smiled yet! But I know he is delighted to have reached that and it's a great battle for us to have as well.
"It's quite exciting, [competing with] one of your best mates and partners for nine or 10 years trying to be the best in the world, it can only help the team."
Stuart Broad was speaking as an ambassador of Hardy's, the official wine of England cricket.
Watch England take on Sri Lanka in the third Investec Test from 10am on Thursday, live on Sky Sports 2 HD.
