Stuart Broad picks the England Bowler who can tackle Steve Smith in the Ashes 2025-26

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Former England pace bowler Stuart Broad has made a stunning confession about Australian batter Steve Smith ahead of the upcoming Ashes 2025-26 series, admitting the 36-year-old remains a mystery to him. Despite dismissing Smith a career-high 11 times in Tests, Broad plainly stated that he still don’t know how to get Smith out. Broad warned that failure to dismiss the right-hander early will lead to a difficult series for the England side, suggesting that the key to winning the series lies in restricting Smith’s average significantly below his career norm.

Broad dedicated a segment of the For the Love of Cricket podcast to detailing the immense frustration and difficulty involved in bowling to Steve Smith. The former bowler confessed that even after bowling 32 matches against him, he is still no closer to settling on a discernible weakness in the batter’s technique.

Broad admitted the Australian’s strength is that even his technique, which has changed throughout his career, provides no consistent solution for opposition bowlers. Broad stated his inability to find a flaw: “Obviously [Smith’s] technique’s changed throughout, but I still can’t sit here and go ‘well this is how you get him out’.” He acknowledged that this lack of a clear weakness is Smith’s greatest asset, calling it an “unbelievable strength.”

Broad lamented the batter’s capacity to score off good deliveries, noting: “He’s incredibly difficult to bowl at. Sometimes you don’t feel like you’ve bowled a bad ball and it still goes for four.” He recalled a particularly painful memory from the 2017-18 series where Smith hit 239 in Perth. Broad described the demoralizing consistency of that innings, stating: “I remember he got this big two hundred [239 in Perth in 2017] and I did not miss the middle of his bat for three days.” He added: “Every ball I tried to bowl just hit the middle of his bat.” Broad concluded that Smith possesses a rare mental fortitude, explaining the batter’s mentality: “He’s got that mindset of ‘OK, this pitch suits me, and I’m not getting out’.”

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Stuart Broad provided England with a clear target average for Smith that they must achieve to have any hope of winning the upcoming Ashes series. Smith’s career average of 56.02 rises to 59.70 when batting at home in Australia, making the task even more difficult for the English bowlers.

Broad laid out the team’s objective: “To win the series, we have to keep him [his average] to under 50, don’t we?” Broad stated the inevitability of Smith’s performance: “He’s gonna score a hundred, it’s what he does.” He quantified success, asserting: “[If] he averages 40, that’s at least 15 under his career average, so you’re doing brilliantly. I think you have to get him early.”

The former bowler emphasized the dire need to dismiss Smith early, warning: “If England aren’t celebrating in his first 40 runs, it’s going to be a long series.” Looking ahead to the upcoming series, which begins in Perth, Broad suggested that Jofra Archer might be the key bowler to unlock Smith’s wicket.

Broad elaborated on the preferred method of dismissal: “Nicking him off from back of a length, just chasing it.” He concluded by explaining the mechanism: “Because Jofra Archer has that angle of nipping back towards the stumps, can he nip one away? Smith’s looking for the nip-backer.” Broad also recalled a previous English plan in 2019 to target catches at leg gully, which Smith skillfully negated, resulting in two hundreds and an “unbelievable innings.”

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