England fast bowler Stuart Broad on Wednesday opined that he might be the last paceman to join the elute 500-wicket club in Test cricket owing to the change in the international calendar.
Broad on Tuesday became the seventh bowler to take his 500th wicket after trapping Kraigg Brathwaite plumb in front of the middle stump as England registered a clinical 269-run win in Manchester to win the Wisden Trophy series 2-1. He is also the fourth seamer and second from England after James Anderson to be part of the elusive group.
When Fred Trueman had become the first bowler to take 300 wickets in Test cricket back in 1964, he claimed that anyboy who surpasses his mark must be "bloody tired." India's Kapil Dev huffed and puffed his way to cross that mark and take his tally to 431, years later, only to watch it being broken a few more times.
Must times have changed since that era. And Broad feels that with the focus of cricket shifting to the smaller formats over the years, it is unlikely for pacers to join him in the '500 club'.
"Someone is going to have to play a lot of cricket because there is a lot of competition out there, between different T20 leagues franchises, 100-ball."
Broad, who completed a 10-fer on the same day en route to England's win, added, "I feel very lucky to have played for England in an era where we've played a lot of Test cricket in the summer and a lot in the winter. I think there's talk of thinning the amount of Tests we play in a summer down."
Among bowlers from the present era, only Australian tweaker Nathan Lyon seems a likely possibility of joining the elite group. He presently has 390 wickets to his name.
