Perhaps it was inevitable that Stuart Broad would reach this milestone bowling from the end named after the only other Englishman to have taken 600 Test wickets, having blazed his own vibrant trail, paradoxically, in James Anderson’s wake throughout so much of his career.
But on this occasion, with sun high in the Manchester sky, the Old Trafford Pavilion, fittingly, cast no shadow, Broad having this summer stepped into clear ground as the leader of England’s attack, a mantle he has so often grasped in the heat of Ashes cricket. His 600th Test scalp, that of Travis Head straight after tea, was also a record 149th against Australia, 34 more than Anderson, one more than Ian Botham and yet another produced at a critical juncture in a vital Ashes game.
