Stuart Broad dreamed of scoring big runs at Trent Bridge when he took guard in front of a dustbin as a five-year-old. Now he has even higher hopes of bowling England to victory during this week's Third Test against New Zealand.

Cricket folk on this side of the world do not have too many reasons to think fondly of Australia. But if Broad ruffles Kiwi feathers with a ball in his hand, and helps to seal a hard-fought series in Nottingham, then some credit will need paying to those Down Under who allowed the son of an Ashes-winning opener to bowl to his heart's content.

For it was not only as a little lad in short trousers that Broad considered himself to be a batsman first and foremost. As recently as 2004, when 18, he regarded bowling as his second occupation, only for a winter's hard graft to change all that.

"I played six months of district cricket in Melbourne and was given the chance to open the batting and the bowling," said Broad. "I was young but didn't stick to any ECB guidelines. I just bowled, maybe 30 overs a weekend, and it got my body used to bowling.

"So when I came back home after playing on some flat pitches in Australia, and the ball was doing a bit more here in early season conditions, I picked up wickets. After two games I was in Leicestershire's first team and I've never looked back from there."

Already amember of England's oneday side, Broad made his Test debut in Sri Lanka last winter and, provided the selectors name an unchanged side on Thursday, will play his fifth consecutive match.

It was while father, Chris, scorer of three centuries in an Ashes series 21 years ago, opened for Notts that Broad Jnr began working on his batting skills. "We would play for hours underneath the old scoreboard with a dustbin for stumps," he said this week while coaching youngsters during a session organised by Test sponsors npower. Once Broad made it into the Leicestershire side he was up and away as bowler. Now he is back at Trent Bridge as a Notts player - and an England regular.

Although wicketless during the remarkable Second Test at Old Trafford, which England won after trailing by 179 runs on first innings, Broad showed enough menace with the ball to retain his place. And the 30 he scored at No8, when Michael Vaughan's team were in danger of failing to avoid the follow-on, confirmed that the youngster still has two strings to his bow.

"My batting has been pleasing me for the last couple of months," said Broad. "I feel my game plan is coming on and it is fantastic to work with [batting coach] Andy Flower on that. The batting side of things is important. If you look at people like Dan Vettori, Shaun Pollock, Brett Lee; they are the benchmarks for me. You need a good batting line-up in international cricket and if I could cement No8 that would be fantastic."

Like Jimmy Anderson, another supporter of npower's junior coaching initiative in Notts, Broad was thrust on to the international stage before the age of 21. Some would say that is too early and, again like Anderson, there are bound to be ups and downs. Broad, though, wouldn't want it any other way.

"I hear some people suggesting you should get them into the team when they are 28 or 29," he said. "But if they then take some time to settle into international cricket because they've never experienced the crowd and intense pressure, you've maybe wasted 10 years of their career. And you never know what they could have been.

"I'm delighted to have had the chance when I'm a lot younger. But I know I've got to keep performing, week in and week out."

Anderson knows the truth of that last remark, having been in and out of the side for six years. The Lancastrian's fightback at Old Trafford proved as much.

Three late strikes gave him four wickets in New Zealand's first innings after he had taken a hammering. "I burgled four wickets but in the past I might have struggled to keep going," he said. "And I was a lot happier with the way I bowled in the second innings."