Broad confirms Ashes fitness

Stuart Broad has expressed his confidence that he will be fit for the first Test of the Investec Ashes series which starts in front of his home crowd at Trent Bridge on Wednesday.

Broad was forced to miss England's warm-up game against Essex at Chelmsford after sustaining an injury to his right shoulder while diving to regain his ground while batting in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy.

He subsequently had a cortisone injection on Monday in an aim to ease the inflammation and pain and returned to some gentle bowling on Wednesday.

"I couldn't be more confident that I will be 100% right," Broad said. "If the series started today I'd be ready to go. It only really hurt when I got to the top of my bowling action and that was where the swelling was. So I had an anti-inflammatory injection to get rid of the swelling.

"How it pulled up two days after the injection was the major part and that was yesterday. I managed to bat and bowl and do some running without any pain, so I am very confident I'll be fine for Trent Bridge."

Broad missed three Tests of the victorious 2010-11 Ashes series after sustaining a side injury and the second half of the successful Test series in India before Christmas due to a heel injury. If fit, he is almost certain to share the new ball for England with James Anderson.