The Ashes: Ability of Cook to forge links with former England greats lifts Broad

England's Stuart Broad, (right) and Alastair Cook, (left).

Pace bowler Broad believes Cook has demolished an invisible wall that had prohibited ex-England stars handing out hints and tips to the current generation.

Broad – whose 8-15 was the stand-out performance of the urn-clinching Nottingham Test – says he had rarely spoken to the likes of Sir Ian Botham during his England career until Cook found a way to bridge the divide between past and present.

“He (Cook) admitted after Trent Bridge that his stubbornness sometimes got the better of him,” said Broad.

“He has been talking a lot more to ex-players about captaincy and learning from people.

“I think we went through a period as a team when we wouldn’t speak to any of our ex-players and it was like us versus them. This new open theory, started by (former coach Peter) ‘Mooresy’ and with (director Andrew) Straussy carrying it on, has helped.

“Go to (Michael) Vaughany in the morning and say ‘What do you reckon here?’ He tells you – and that can set your mind at rest. And the way Beefy has been coming over and encouraging people – I’d played for six or seven years and never really spoken to Beefy.

“Now he is coming over to the team and going, ‘Come on, boys, let’s get this done today.’

“That gives you a huge lift.”

Ahead of this week’s final Oval Test, Broad revealed Cook called every England player last Tuesday in a bid to cement the “burning desire” to complete a 4-1 rout of Australia.

The 29-year-old also branded his figures at Trent Bridge a “once in a lifetime” spell, cherishing public reaction to pictures of his dumbfounded response to Ben Stokes’s stunning catch to dismiss Adam Voges.

“Cooky called us all on Tuesday, to say: ‘Let’s make sure we turn up Monday knowing that we’re in a battle and that we want to start again, Because I’ve got a burning desire for this to be 4-1’,” said Broad.

“And there is a burning desire to keep this form going.”

England face Test series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates and South Africa in a challenging winter, with Broad admitting Cook’s men must win abroad to justify recent hype surrounding a new era of dominance.

“I don’t think there’s any danger of us getting too far ahead of ourselves – we’ve got a lot of Test cricket coming our way,” he added.