Broad impressed with himself after diligent period of dieting

England’s 6ft 6ins seamer is determined to put a run of injuries behind him as he seeks to realise his potential as one of the mainstays of a world-beating pace attack.

Broad might have permitted himself an adequate helping of turkey and stuffing over Christmas. But before then it was healthy eating all the way – followed by a strenuous work-out in Potchefstroom, South Africa – and the 25-year-old is convinced he is therefore ready to return to England colours in optimum shape.

“I’m not going to lie; after six weeks it took its toll on me – jeez, I enjoyed that first chocolate bar,” he said as he recalled the strict diet, prescribed by the England and Wales Cricket Board but which he diligently followed.

“I only drank water and tea. I don’t know how these Olympic athletes do it – I still enjoy having a beer and stuff.

“But it was nice to try to challenge myself in a different way.”

Broad is set for England’s first practice session today in preparation for three Tests, four one-day internationals and three Twenty20s against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates at the start of an arduous 2012 schedule.

After having to sit out several high-profile engagements over the past 12 months through injury – the second half of the Ashes, much of the World Cup and most recently England’s 5-0 ODI thrashing in India – he is determined to help himself.

Agreeing to a health-food diet which is also favoured by top-level football clubs is just one part of that.

“The ECB sorted it out ... from a company I think Man United use when they get a new signing in,” he said.

“They send the menu over. I think it was about 2,000 calories a day. It was still hearty, good meals – I wasn’t ever hungry. It gave me everything I needed.

“The ECB nutrionists gave me the menu and it got delivered every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“There’s not often you get a chance when you’re at home so that you can watch what you eat.

“When you’re in hotels and eating out you can’t really tell what’s going into the food, so it was a good opportunity to be able to do that.

“I didn’t have to lose weight; I knew I was going to be working hard in the gym. But I didn’t want to be eating rubbish at the same time. So I thought I’d give it a go.”

Broad believes he is reaping the benefits, and he certainly got the opportunity to test his theory on last month’s fast-bowling trip to South Africa.

“I trained really hard,” he said. “Those 10 days in Potch were as hard as any pre-season I’ve ever done. Obviously at alititude the air’s quite hard to breathe as well, so that was really good for us. The guys all look in really good shape.

“If there was ever that concern of coming back after eating a bit too much Christmas turkey, it’s certainly not been that. The boys look really good and fresh to go.”

Broad had a rollercoaster 2011, beset by injury and then poor form only to bounce back with a string of outstanding performances – most notably with a man-of-the-match contribution against India on his home ground at Trent Bridge, where he followed a swashbuckling half-century with a hat-trick once he got the ball in his hands.

Even so, he acknowledges there were tough lessons as well as heroics last year.

“It was a huge learning experience for me,” he continued. “I had my first really awful set of form for two months. In the Sri Lanka series, I couldn’t buy a wicket. Then I had a complete upturn and probably the best series of my career so far.

“It was something I learned from. I feel a much better player for it. I also had the high of getting the (Twenty20) captaincy.”

England captain Andrew Strauss has challenged his side to keep improving, telling them: “Getting to No 1 in the rankings is nothing, really. It’s just your name on a piece of paper, that’s all it is.

“There’s always a new challenge ahead of you; this one coming up against Pakistan is a very stern challenge, I think, and whenever an England side go to the sub-continent it’s a challenge anyway because it requires a different set of skills to win out here.

“WWe’re confident, we’ve been playing a lot of good cricket recently. If we’re at all complacent we’ll come unstuck pretty quickly.”

England face two warm-up matches, the first of which, against an ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI, begins on Saturday, before the first Test gets under way on January 17.