The ultimate Ashes competitor - Broad on walking, Warner and that final wicket

There are plenty of contenders for the most famous first ball of an Ashes series.

Michael Slater slashing Phillip DeFreitas for four. Stephen Harmison's wide. Rory Burns bowled by Mitchell Starc. Zak Crawley crunching Pat Cummins through the covers.

As for the most iconic final ball, one man has that covered.

Stuart Broad's place in Ashes history was already assured before his fairytale finale at The Oval two years ago.

The bail-switching, the headband, the edge off Alex Carey and the celebrations etched into English cricketing folklore.

"I feel like extremely lucky it ended the way it did," Broad tells BBC Sport. "My last ever professional ball, taking that favourite wicket you could ever take - last wicket to win a Test, against Australia, crowd going berserk.

"I'll never get bored of talking about it because it takes me back to a feeling and a moment that was so special."

Broad's final act as an England cricketer was made perfect by everything that had gone before. The 604 Test wickets were more than enough for a hall-of-fame career, but few England players are as synonymous with Ashes cricket as Broad.

No England bowler has taken more Ashes wicket than Broad's 153. No fast bowler on either side has played more than Broad's 40 Ashes Tests. Beyond the numbers, few have found themselves at the heart of as many Ashes battles, engineered as many special moments or created as many memories.

Broad's life has been entwined with Ashes cricket and his early career was heavily influenced by Australia.

When Broad was six months old, his father Chris was scoring three hundreds for England on the successful Ashes tour of 1986-87. The young Broad's cricketing hero was Australia metronome Glenn McGrath, and his development was accelerated by a spell as an 18-year-old with Melbourne club Hoppers Crossing.

Broad was playing Test cricket three years after his time with Hoppers. With a baby face and bouncing blond hair, the Draco Malfoy lookalike was a bowler of obvious promise but no clear identity. It was two years into his career, while earning his 22nd cap in the fifth and deciding Ashes Test, that Broad produced a performance to make him feel at home in an England shirt.

When he was handed the ball on the second day, his career bowling average stood at an unsatisfactory 37.63. What followed was the first of Broad's trademark spells - Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting, Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin removed in the space of nine overs to push the urn towards English hands.

"I walked off the field and felt 'maybe I do belong in this England shirt'," says Broad.

"After that five-for I walked down the stairs at The Oval and someone asked for my autograph. A picture was on the front page of the paper. I remember looking at it and going 'wow, that's different'."

The next time Broad was an Ashes winner, England's famous triumph down under in 2010-11, he played only two Tests before his series was ended by a side injury. He cried as he was hugged by England team doctor Nick Pierce in the dressing room at the Adelaide Oval and spent the third Test in Perth with the Test Match Special team before heading home to watch the rest of the series from his sofa.

Broad was two from two in Ashes series, but his role as the Pom the Aussies loved to hate was not forged until 2013.

In the tight first Test, Broad's edge off the spin of Ashton Agar deflected off the wicketkeeping gloves of Haddin and into the hands of Clarke at first slip. Broad did not walk, Australia were out of reviews and the runs he went on to add helped England win the match.

In Broad's defence, his brass neck looked worse because of Haddin's inability to hang ont o the edge, but that did not stop Australia coach Darren Lehmann labelling him a "blatant cheat" whom he hoped "cries and goes home" in the return series down under six months later.

Broad knew he was going to cop it, not least when the Brisbane Courier Mail refused to print his name and ran a headline calling him a 'smug Pommie cheat'.

"In the warm-up games I walked around the boundary edge with the psychologist or on my own," he says. "If you walk around the Gabba there might be 45,000 people, so you just hear noise. If you walk around at a warm-up where there might only be 100 people, you hear every word.

"I wanted to build a shield around me. I wanted to hear the abuse to strengthen me. I worked with the psychologist, because I knew it was coming, to strengthen my resolve.

"When my name got announced that I was bowling my first ball in the first Test at the Gabba, the boos were unbelievable.

"The day before, I'd done my pre-match mental routine. I stood at the end of my mark, bowled four overs in my mind and I imagined the boos. I could feel it. I felt like I'd been there before. It definitely fazed me. I bowled a no-ball, a short one that got hit for four first ball. It was quite overwhelming."

Despite that feeling, Broad recovered to take five wickets and, that evening, walked into the news conference with the Courier Mail tucked under his arm. It was England's best day in a series where they were dismantled by Mitchell Johnson and lost 5-0.

Eighteen months later Broad was doing some dismantling of his own in a career-defining and Ashes-clinching performance.

In the fourth Test on his home ground of Trent Bridge, Broad was bowling England's first over for the first time in the absence of the injured James Anderson. Using his local knowledge, Broad urged captain Alastair Cook to bat first if he won the toss.

"I was marking my run-up out and Shane Warne came over and said 'That's a bowl first, isn't it?'," says Broad. "I remember thinking Shane Warne is bat first everywhere. If he thinks it's bowl first...

"I went over to Cookie. 'Chef, it could be a bowl first'. He said 'Don't worry, I've made that call already'."

Broad's legs were pumping. Australian edges were swallowed by England slip fielders. Figures of 8-15 remain the best in Ashes history by a pace bowler from either side. Australia were torn apart in 18.3 overs and 94 minutes. 60 all out.

"You can't take it in," says Broad. "I got the five-for, it came up on the big screen and I didn't have a clue.

"It took a bit of time - months - to see the scorecard and see 8-15 written. What was so special was Joe Root got a hundred in the same day. If we'd been bowled out for 100, it's a different conversation."

That 2015 series was the last time Broad won the Ashes. England were again blown away down under in 2017-18 and the following contest in the UK was drawn 2-2.

For many, 2019 is remembered for the exploits of Ben Stokes, but for Broad it was when he took a stranglehold on David Warner. Seven times in five Tests Broad got Warner, part of an overall hoodoo of 17 dismissals. In Test history, only two other bowlers have dismissed the same batter more frequently.

"Technically, I worked him out at the back end," says Broad. "I did loads of strategy and stats work and realised he didn't hit the ball straight through mid-on and didn't hit it through square leg.

"In 2019 I made a complete technical shift to try to hit his leg stump. I didn't mind if it went down the leg side. I said to Jonny Bairstow, the wicketkeeper, just understand I'm going to be bowling leg side so make sure you give yourself some room.

"I got Warner three times in the first three innings and I thought 'I've opened something up here'."

Even with Broad knocking over Warner twice more in the three Tests he played in Australia in 2021-22, England were once again hammered 4-0. Broad would later wind up the Aussies once more by suggesting the series should be "void" because of the Covid restrictions placed on the England squad.

Broad was left out in the aftermath of that tour, only to be recalled when Stokes and Brendon McCullum were installed as captain and coach respectively.

In what turned out to be the final year of Broad's career, no other pace bowler took more Test wickets and, even with his old mate Anderson hunting a 700th scalp, it was Broad who assumed the role of England's attack leader.

In the epic 2023 Ashes series, when England were denied the greatest comeback of all time by the Manchester rain, Broad was the only home seamer to play all five Tests.

"Deep down, I always knew I wanted my last ball in professional cricket to be in an England shirt," says Broad.

"I wanted to finish at the top. To do that, you need to make the call. You don't want to go on too long. I had a bit of a fear of a 21-year-old playing against me and going 'I thought he was supposed to be good'. I definitely could have played another couple of years."

Before the denouement came one more opportunity to chastise the Australians, one more chance to be at the centre of a red-hot Ashes tussle.

When Bairstow was controversially stumped by Carey at a baying Lord's, Broad was next in to join Stokes. If ever a situation was made for Broad, it was this - giving a piece of his mind to Carey and Australia captain Pat Cummins, antagonising and goading the tourists as a furious Stokes flayed the ball to all parts.

"It was red mist to start," says Broad. "Not necessarily my opinion over the dismissal - it was walking over that line and feeling the energy of Lord's.

"Something triggered inside me that anyone in a green hat was getting it. The ultra-competitive side of me rose. After about 20 minute I started working with Stokesy and quite deliberately twisted the situation our way. How I was behaving maybe took the Australians off their plan to Stokesy, so we looked to carry that on.

"I remember getting home, sitting with my partner Mollie and we were watching a compilation BBC Sport had put together of the nonsense I'd done. I was filled with embarrassment. 'Oh my goodness me. What on earth was I doing?' I was 36 years old. How did I let myself get to that stage?"

Despite the Broad-Stokes assault, England were well beaten, 2-0 down and staring into the abyss.

"If an incident hadn't happened that day there would have been the narrative of 'England have thrown this away', because we had situations where we put ourselves on the back foot," says Broad.

The fightback began at Headingley, where a "petrified" Broad was due in next as England completed a nerve-shredding run-chase. Broad took his 600th Test wicket at Old Trafford but the washout, which ended the chance of winning the urn, was "the worst feeling in sport".

To The Oval, with a series to draw and, as it turned out, a career to end. On the second evening of the final Test Broad went to Stokes' hotel room.

"I knocked on Stokesy's door, wandered in, held out my hand out and said 'that's me, mate'," says Broad. "Stokesy just gave me a massive hug.

"I said to him as I left the room 'don't tell anyone', because I needed to see how I would feel the next morning.

"I woke up, opened the curtains and it felt right. The first person I called was my dad, then my mum, then (England managing director) Rob Key. I told the changing room when I got in that morning, then I told the press that night."

What followed was a joyous celebration of all things Broad, scripted to the very last ball.

As a batter, he swiped the last delivery he faced for six. In a legendary moment of sporting theatre, Broad had Carey caught behind to win the Test and square the series. The instant the ball nestled into the gloves of Bairstow, Broad was an England player no more.

"It was the best. Incredible," says Broad. "That saying to 'play like it's your last game'. Well, it was. Go and have some fun and some freedom - be a bit silly.

"Even if I bowl another 5,000 balls, I'm never going to get that feeling again. I feel so content with how it ended."

Now, with the next Ashes on the horizon, the first in almost two decades without Broad in the England team, he has no urge to "lace the boots up" and confront Australia once more.

"It's everything you wish for as a player," Broad says. "It tests everything about you. It brings out emotion, character, mental strength, technical ability and physical hardship.

"If just one fan out there will link me to Ashes cricket, it gives me great pride. I wanted to play and wanted to win."

The Ashes: Australia v England

21 November 2025 - 7 January 2026

In-play clips and highlights on iPlayer, BBC Sport website and app. Ball-by-ball commentary on BBC Sounds, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and the BBC Sport website and app, which will also have live text commentary and daily features and analysis