England vs India second Test: England players staying in 'haunted hotel', claims Stuart Broad, but does that explain their terrible nine-match winless streak?

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

England have appeared haunted since their 5-0 Ashes mauling Down Under as they look set to continue their nine-match winless Test streak, but it appears that’s exactly what they are.

England face the mammoth task of chasing down 319 on the final day of the second Test against India, with Joe Root and Moeen Ali set to take to the crease today on 105-4 in a bid to take an unlikely 1-0 lead.

But the current squad, many of whom have cut a shadow of their former world-dominating selves, have revealed that they have suffered many a sleepless night at their five-star hotel because it is “haunted” – yes, haunted by ghosts.

Fast bowler Stuart Broad, who along with captain Alastair Cook has been one of the biggest disappointments of the summer, revealed that he moved rooms at the Langham Hotel in Marylebone because he was “convinced” there were ghosts in the same room that he was sleeping in.

“One night I woke up in the middle of the night, around 1.30am and I was convinced there was a presence in the room,” Broad said in an interview with the Mail on Sunday.

“It was the weirdest feeling. All of a sudden the taps in the bathroom came on for no reason. I turned the lights on and the taps turned themselves off.

“Then when I turned the lights off again the taps came on. It really freaked me out. I ended up asking to move rooms.”

The fast-bowler is not the only one to have experienced the spooky goings-on at the London hotel. All-rounder Ben Stokes, another who is struggling to find any form with the bat following a string of single digit scores, is also reported to have had difficulties sleeping, while some of the players’ girlfriends refused to stay at the Langham Hotel.

The website of the 149-year-old hotel also has a story about its reputation of being haunted, with seven ghosts believed to roam the hallways of the “most haunted hotel in England”.