Nasser Hussain on Broad’s retirement: ‘He’s timed it perfectly’

While announcing his retirement, Broad made it clear that he had the ability to continue playing but decided against it.

London: Former England skipper Nasser Hussain heaped praise on Stuart Broad after the veteran pacer hung up his boots after enjoying a memorable final day of his international career.

Broad announced his retirement from international cricket at the end of Day 3 of the fifth Ashes Test.

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Broad saw a fairy tale ending to his career as he walked away with 604 wickets in Test cricket. In his last series, Broad finished with 22 wickets which was the highest for any England bowler in this year’s Ashes.

While announcing his retirement, Broad affirmed that he could have carried on playing but chose not to.

Hussain hailed Broad for his decision to retire while he was still at the top of his game.

“Well, that’s the point. 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,’ Hussain said in the recent episode of the ICC review.

“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,” Hussain added.

Broad brought an end to his career, both with the bat and ball on a remarkable note.

While facing his last ball, he smashed Mitchell Starc for a maximum. Then, on the final day, the final minutes of the last Ashes Test, Broad delivered with the ball as he had done so often in his decorated international career that lasted for 17 years.

The experienced pacer dismissed set batter Alex Carey to clinch victory for England and ensure that Australia’s barren run in the overseas conditions continued in the Ashes.