Mohammad Amir can do us some damage: Stuart Broad

England pacer Stuart Broad a couple of days ahead of the series opener against Pakistan at the Lord’s has said that the English team needs to get over Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir’s past and should rather focus on his cricketing abilities since he is capable of doing a lot of damage in the upcoming 4-match Test series.

Amir is all set to make his comeback in Test cricket at the same venue where he played his last back in 2010. He has been the biggest talking point around the series with various reactions coming up from current and former cricketers on his comeback to cricket and Lord’s. He had though made it a point that the discussions are rather about his performance with an impressive spell against Somerset in his first-class comeback.

Broad who will be leading the England bowling attack in absence of James Anderson was quoted by Sky Sports saying, “It is a huge story, back for his first Test at Lord’s since the controversy six years ago, a massive story. But, as a team, it is a dangerous place to get waylaid by that, because we could find ourselves in a lot of trouble,”  

“Having seen the way Amir has bowled at Taunton, we need to get in the right frame of mind, because he can do us some damage. Let’s start looking at him as a cricketer and a bowler, and how we can negate that.”

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“I think what will help the team move on is that there is only me, Alastair Cook and Steve Finn who played in that Test. It is a very new team,” he added.

The last time Broad led their bowling attack was at Trent Bridge and produced match winning spell of 8/15 in the first innings which helped England secure a huge win.

“I have played 90-odd Test matches, and I can only think of maybe five or six without Jimmy. You are stepping into the unknown, but that can give you a bit extra. Trent Bridge went well, Durban went well. I hope it will go the same here,” the 30-year-old said.

At this point Broad feels their biggest challenge is the Lord’s surface since it hasn’t offered real help to the bowler and has dashed out draws.

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“I think our biggest challenge is going to be this wicket because you look at all the Middlesex scores and they are all bore draws – 500 plays 500,” he concluded.