England's Twenty20 prospects excite revitalised Broad

STUART Broad believes he has his own preparation spot on to help England try to win an International Cricket Council tournament for the first time in their history.

England's first ICC World Twenty20 warm-up fixture is against Bangladesh at the Kensington Oval today – and after his eight-wicket match haul for Nottinghamshire last week and a necessary month's rest before then, following an arduous winter schedule for England, Broad is raring to go.

"I feel great. The rest was fantastic after Bangladesh to make sure the body got rid of all the niggles," said the 23-year-old pace bowler. "Then this last week it was a fantastic experience helping Notts win and get some overs under my belt. I feel really fresh and excited about what we can do in this tournament."

England were unable to rise to the occasion just under a year ago when they hosted the ICC World Twenty20 – embarrassingly losing their opening match against the Netherlands at Lord's, then recovering in the group stages, only to be stymied by the West Indies on a rainy night at the Oval. But Broad believes they have made significant strides since then.

"We obviously stumbled against the Netherlands," he concedes. "But the great thing about this tournament is you can recover from that – and we qualified after beating Pakistan pretty convincingly and were actually quite unfortunate losing in a rain-affected game, where the Duckworth-Lewis stuffed us a bit."

Ten months on, England have some new personnel – specifically in Michael Lumb and wicketkeeper-batsman Craig Kieswetter at the top of the order. That, and other factors such as their limited-overs success in the West Indies a year ago, enthuses Broad.

"I think we've got a really well-balanced squad here, batters who can hit boundaries all the way through the order, good spinners – and I think the team is really excited about our prospects," he said. "If we can use the knowledge we gained here last year, I think we can go far. It's certainly an exciting squad, and I think we've got a really good chance."

As for his own Twenty20 development, Broad believes he is adapting well from the demands of four and five-day and even 50-over cricket to the canny nuances of keeping batsmen guessing in the shortest format. He does not, however, regret giving the Indian Premier League a miss to date because he believes the time has not yet been right to spend six weeks on the sub-continent when he has needed recovery time from a hectic international schedule.

"Obviously, I want to experience the IPL at some stage – it looks a fantastic tournament," he said. "But I am pleased I had the rest this time."