Trent Bridge Test or not, Stuart Broad won’t neglect fantasy league duties

Broad is an ardent Fantasy Premier League fan, and he’s quite good at it – last season, he won the Manager of the Week award in game-week 37 after claiming the highest score worldwide.

The achievement ranked close to his famous 8/15 in the Ashes, he said at the time. “I enjoyed 8-15 in the Ashes but leading GW37 in #EPL Fantasy Football runs it close as a sporting achievement," he posted on Instagram.

His reward was delivered to his county ground at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, and unsurprisingly, his teammates ransacked the gift pack.

In it they found an EA SPORTS FIFA 18, a Nike Ordem V match ball, an FPL rucksack, an FPL mug, and a stress ball. Broad gave away everything – the Notts use the match ball for warm-ups, while his stepdad makes good use of the rucksack – but he made sure to keep hold of the mug.

“I actually wind my mates up," Broad told the FPL show. “I drink out of the cup, my tea in the morning. Or if the lads come around, I'll always have a cup of tea out of that mug, and they're like, 'put it away, we've heard enough about it!'”

Broad remembered how thrilled he was when he checked his phone that week and saw how well he was doing. “You know you've got the top points in the top right-hand corner? Well that matched up with mine and I thought, ‘Surely not, that's weird’. I clicked on, and I was joint-top with someone.

"I came into the changing room and the lads were like buzzing. 'Have you seen it? Have you seen it? You're top of the Gameweek!'

Broad will be back at Trent Bridge on Saturday, with England standing a chance to clinch the five-match series, but he'll make time for his fantasy team.

After training on the eve of the match, he planned to tinker with his team. “Fridays are my day to get my team right," he said.

“I like to leave selection to the last minute on Friday to make sure I don’t have any last-minute injuries. [Kevin] De Bruyne's got injured this week so he's going to have to be my transfer.”