England’s medical staff have opted not to dispatch Stuart Broad for a scan after his injury niggle eased.

Broad, 23, was due to have tightness in his left buttock checked out this morning.

However, after waking up feeling less impaired by the problem, it was decided further treatment and assessment would be the best course of action.

England play in the first semi-final of the Champions Trophy at Centurion on Friday and Broad will be scanned on Thursday should the condition deteriorate in the build-up.

England all-rounder Stuart Broad will take a few days rest and will not play the third NatWest series match against Australia.

England all-rounder Stuart Broad has been granted a few days rest and will not feature in tomorrow’s third NatWest series match against Australia at the Rose Bowl.

Broad, 23, sustained a neck strain in the opening match of the series last Friday which caused him to miss the second game at Lord’s on Sunday.

Although England are 2-0 down and Broad is a major player in their one-day plans, it was decided to allow him further recuperation time given the heavy scheduling over the next month.

Broad will rejoin the party on Thursday evening in anticipation of featuring in the fourth match of seven at Lord’s on Saturday.

In the meantime, England will effectively pick from a 13-man squad, with Kent opening batsman Joe Denly unavailable for Wednesday’s day-nighter due to his knee injury.

Meanwhile, fast bowler Graham Onions joined up with the party this morning at the Rose Bowl to bolster the options in the attack.

Stuart Broad can expect massive sums after his Ashes exploits but the man himself is interested in a different type of figures.

All-rounder Broad’s role in England’s 2-1 victory over Australia led to estimations of £2million in sponsorship deals alone will follow.

However, Broad, 23, is more concerned with career statistics, by virtue of runs and wickets, than the number of noughts on cheques.

Speaking at the England team hotel in London, in the aftermath of the 197-run series-sealing win at the Oval, Nottinghamshire’s Broad said: “You have got to make runs and take wickets and perform for England for other things to happen to you.

“They are certainly not a primary vision of mine; I want to play 100 Test matches for England, I want to be the highest one-day wicket-taker for England but more importantly I want to win World Cups for England and Ashes series in Australia.

“I want to make England the best team in the world and that prospect is the thing that really excites me the most and makes me want to get out of bed every day when I have bowled 30 overs the day before.”

Broad’s five for 37 on Friday afternoon set up the fifth npower Test win and boosted a series return which appeared fallow midway through.

He finished the campaign as England’s leading wicket-taker with 18, and allied to his two half-centuries, meant he was one of the team’s most prolific performers.

He is also on course to reach his career target of averaging above 30 with the bat and below it with the ball - his current returns are 30.68 and 35.78 respectively.

“I am not massively stats driven but stats don’t lie,” Broad said. “Anyone in international cricket with a bowling average of under 30 is doing fantastically well.

“You see the likes of Dale Steyn, and people like this, who are down at about 21.

“If I could have a bowling average of under 30 and a batting average over 30 I would be a very happy boy.

“But I have got a lot of hard work to do because if my batting average is to stay near 30 I have got to start scoring 100s.

“In the next couple months I am looking to develop my batting. It is a mindset because I believe I can do it.

“As soon as I get to 30 I start thinking ‘right where can I hit this ball’ rather than a batsmen who thinks ‘right I’ve got to 30 let’s go and get 70 and 80′. That is the mindset that I can change.

“At certain stages in this series I have played my shots and it has come off for me.

“But I have also had chances were I could have gone on and played a really telling score and that is my next vision.”

The events of the past 72 hours have cast Broad as a potential poster boy for a new generation of English sport, particularly given the passing of Andrew Flintoff from Test cricket.

Having slayed Australia in such a high-profile contest, his life has unquestionably changed from just a week ago.

“I’ve not been aware of what’s been happening,” he said. “It has been a tough couple of days and I have barely left my room - it has been room service, sleeping and playing cricket.

“I’ve not been aware of extra attention but that is something that is out of my control anyway.

“It is an exciting time. I have got some very good people around me. My old man has experienced winning an Ashes and been successful and my mum is a very grounded person and if I ever put a foot out of place she would tell me.”

He added: “I haven’t got the body to be posing in my underwear like David Beckham.

“I think whenever you play international sport it is quite high pressured and there is a lot going on.

“I have dealt with that well in the last couple of years and I don’t think that will change.

“I am focused on my training and having grown up in a sporting family, that is something I have always been used to.

“My dad has always said that cricket comes first. If you get your runs and wickets then everything else will take care of itself.”

Reality will hit home for Broad tomorrow as one of six of the successful Oval XI who fly to Belfast for Thursday’s one-day international against Ireland.

Kevin Pietersen has backed Stuart Broad to make England fans forget Andrew Flintoff.

Flintoff is playing his final Test for England as persistent knee injuries mean he is unable to continue to play the longer form of the game.

But with Flintoff faltering England have already found a “world class” replacement, according to Pietersen, in the shape of 23-year-old Broad.

Pietersen told the News of the World: “Freddie (Flintoff) has struggled with too many injuries this summer and maybe hasn’t made the impact he would have liked in this thrilling series.

“His retirement would leave a void in any side. But in England’s case, it is one that Stuart Broad, can certainly fill.

“Yes, I know it is a big call. And a big burden of expectation. The last thing Stuart would want or need is to be called the new Freddie. And he won’t be. He’s his own player.

“He has shown in this game - and others - that he can become a world-class all-rounder for England.

“His performance in this fifth Test has shown that he has accepted the responsibility of becoming England’s number one all-rounder now that Freddie is leaving the Test match scene.

“Stuart’s bowling and batting are improving all the time. He is only 23 years old don’t forget, and there is a lot of development yet to come from him.

“But what impresses me most about Stuart is that he has a good cricketing brain. He is clearly an intelligent cricketer, as he showed with his superb bowling on Friday afternoon.

“With Freddie bowing out, Stuart is the future.”

Stuart Broad is determined to make the most of being handed an Ashes partnership with James Anderson.

England’s bowling was fronted by the so-called fab four of Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Andrew Flintoff and Simon Jones four years ago when they successfully secured the little urn.

But with that quartet currently either injured or out of favour, 22-year-old Broad is forging a partnership with Lancashire paceman Anderson, 26, with just one Test between now and the summer’s big event.

They have been the chosen opening pair for the past two Test matches against West Indies and are set to continue that relationship at Chester-le-Street this week.

“It is something I worked hard for in one-day cricket, I was given the new ball against South Africa last year and really want to make it my own,” said Broad, speaking at the launch of a new npower urban cricket facility in Nottingham.

“It is certainly something I want to do in Test cricket - I have always bowled with the new ball for Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire and it is something I have really cherished.

“It puts pressure on you to take wickets but that is something I enjoy.”

Captain Andrew Strauss began his tenure earlier this year by throwing the new ball to all-rounder Flintoff but another frustrating injury has allowed the Anderson-Broad axis to develop.

And Broad reckons they have begun to forge the kind of understanding required to be successful at the top level.

“Personally I like fielding at mid-off because you can chat to the other bowler,” said Broad.

“Jimmy and I have played a lot of cricket together now and we talk about deliveries all the time.

“When Chris Gayle was driving me in the first innings at Lord’s, Jimmy told me to try a couple of overs of just attempting to hit him in the belly button.

“That was designed to tie him up a bit and luckily one of them swung back a bit and got him out.

“Communication is key in Test cricket because it is whoever adapts the quickest seems to prosper.”

Despite his tender years and the fact he was playing in only his 16th Test, Broad is suddenly one of the senior men in a new-look team and that showed in his reaction to debutants Graham Onions and Tim Bresnan at Lord’s.

“I felt a responsibility to get Graham into his first spell and Tim as well,” he said.

“The communication within the bowling attack was fantastic in the last Test: the lengths to bowl, the areas to bowl, and we decided that we could afford to be driven and were willing to sacrifice going at four runs per over to get a couple of wickets.”

That sacrifice resulted in the tourists being bundled out for just 152 and following-on, with Onions bagging a maiden five-wicket haul.

Broad’s pace was impressive in the three-day victory - even if the speedgun which clocked him at 93-miles-per-hour might be termed over-enthusiastic - and he clearly benefited from giving the Indian Premier League a miss to rest up for 10 days at the start of the season.

“I am certainly stronger, so that is going to help, perhaps not with my first spell but perhaps coming back after 80 overs with the second new ball when you need to hit 85 miles per hour again,” said Broad, in relation to his speed.

“I feel I can recover more quickly after games because I feel a lot fitter.

“It was pleasing to get Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan - two huge wickets and two people who caused us trouble out in the West Indies - but I was actually more pleased with my second-innings performance: how my rhythm felt and the areas I hit.

“It is nice to bowl at a pace where you have still got a little bit more in you, so you can surprise the batsman.

“The hardest bowlers to face when I am batting are people whose bouncer is quicker than their length-ball because it really shocks you.

“They can also hurry you with their fuller ball or slide it on to you.

“Bowlers that vary their speed by five or six miles an hour have been very effective over recent years.

“That is something I am trying to implement into my game.”

Stuart Broad is ready to step into Andrew Flintoff’s shoes by taking the new ball for England in fourth Test against West Indies.

Broad, 22, is keen to open the bowling as the tourists attempt to claw their way back into the series without Flintoff, who has been ruled out at the Kensington Oval with a muscle strain in his right hip.

Flintoff will be assessed in the coming days, during which he has been told to rest, in the hope he will be fit for the series finale in Trinidad and the one-day campaign which follows.

“I’m very upset to miss the Test match”

“I am obviously very disappointed to miss the Test match and I will be taking the advice of the England medical team that is out here,” said Flintoff.

Next Thursday’s penultimate match of the series - in which England are 1-0 down - will be the 53rd Test that Flintoff has missed, the vast majority through injury, since making his debut in 1998.

He has been employed in a new-ball role in this series by captain Andrew Strauss but passed the baton to Broad for the second innings of the draw in Antigua, after suffering discomfort in his hip.

Broad, England’s leading wicket-taker in the two completed matches to date with nine at 19.77 apiece, said: “It is a role I have always hunted in an England shirt, both in one-day and Test cricket.

“I have taken the new ball throughout my county career and it is something I would like to do for England. But it is one of those things which is not just handed on a plate - you have to earn the right to do it.

“Obviously with Fred out there is now a chance to take the new ball, and it is one I would jump at.”

England will use the two-day match against a Barbados Cricket Association President’s XI, starting on Monday, to assess options for covering Flintoff’s absence.

Either the batting or bowling depth will suffer as a result - most likely the former due to the need to take 20 wickets - and captain Andrew Strauss and assistant coach Andy Flower will formulate contingency plans in the practice match.

Those discussions would have taken place in better spirits had England separated West Indies’ final pair Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards during 34 minutes of increasing evening gloom on Thursday evening.

“We have been brutally honest with ourselves, we should have won that Test match,” reflected Broad.

“We are getting oursleves in these winning positions and not winning after such hard work in the previous days is very disheartening.

“We are in an environment where that has been and gone. We have got two Test matches to go and we have to win two, so our task is simple.”

England were on the brink of victory when off-spinner Graeme Swann trapped Sulieman Benn leg before wicket.

“I was certainly running around like a headless chicken,” recalled Broad.

“But that light was just going behind the cathedral, I could see the sun going down, and it was one of those moments in which you could feel the anxiety in the whole stadium.

“Everyone was rushing around and with numbers 10 and 11 in you are only one wicket away. But we couldn’t force the issue.”

Much has been made of Broad’s development as a fast bowler over the last 12 months and his maiden five-wicket haul in Jamaica at the start of the Wisden Trophy campaign was a major breakthrough.

Rather than putting on extra speed, however, Broad puts his success down to some old-fashioned principles.

“You never stop developing as a bowler and I’ve certainly learned a lot in these last two years of international cricket,” Broad said. “Before I came away I thought about not having to bowl at 87-88 miles per hour.

“I looked at the likes of Angus Fraser who just ran it back into off-stump and got a lot of wickets here.

“I came here with quite a clear plan to go at two to two-and-a-half runs per over, keep it tight and bowl straight. I have been pleased with how it has gone in the first couple of Test matches.

“Bowling on these slow pitches can improve your skills for when you get back home and hopefully a tour like this can develop me as a bowler.

“Certainly my view has always been to make sure you nail your accuracy and skills, then in time your strength will develop and pace will pick up.”

“Playing for England is most important”

Broad could also find himself promoted to number seven, depending on the rest of the team composition, a role he aspires to more permanently in the future.

He will not feature in the President’s XI contest and neither will Swann, who is suffering from an elbow injury following his eight-wicket haul in the third Test, and is a doubt for next Thursday.

While he takes a breather, however, a longer rest awaits Broad at the end of the tour, having opted not to put himself forward for the Indian Premier League.

“It’s one of the biggest summers of my life coming up, it’s been quite a hectic winter and I felt at my age I wanted to make sure, not just physically but mentally, I was refreshed,” said Broad.

“Rushing off to the subcontinent two days after getting back home from this tour, I felt, was a bit much for me in my development.

“Playing for England is by far the most important thing in my life and I felt that is what I should put all my energies into.”

Stuart Broad can prepare for a call confirming his place in England’s West Indies tour squad later this week having exceeded even his own expectations during his first year in Test cricket.

The 22-year-old Nottinghamshire seamer returned home from a tough tour to India as one of the few England players who can look back on the last 12 months knowing he has made significant progress.

“I’m pleased with the way I’ve settled into Test cricket,” admitted Broad, who has claimed 24 wickets in nine Tests this year. “I’d have liked to have picked up more wickets en route but I’ve been delighted with the way the batting has come on.”

Just a year ago Broad had flown home in similar circumstances from Sri Lanka having made his Test debut in Colombo and still making his way in the one-day side.

Twelve months on and Broad is an established member of England’s one-day planning and is now beginning to become a key member of the Test side, which is likely to be confirmed when the tour squad for the Caribbean is announced on Monday.

It would complete an outstanding 12 months when he has ousted a senior figure like Steve Harmison from the Test side twice - in New Zealand and India - and performed well on each occasion.

“To pick up three Test fifties in my first year is pleasing because I know I can get wickets,” Broad added.

“I’ve proved at one-day international level that I can take wickets in international cricket. If I stay patient with my action and my lines and lengths then wickets will come in the future.”