Stuart Broad may be the latest national hero, with women swooning over his boyish looks, men wanting to slap him on the back and buy him a pint and agents crawling out of the woodwork to offer multimillion-pound deals, but what the modest Nottinghamshire all-rounder really wants is to spend a night in his own bed and maybe hang a shelf or two.

“I bought a house six months ago and I’ve only spent about 20 nights there,” he said yesterday. “When we have finished with these one-day games and the Champions Trophy, all I’m looking forward to is two or three weeks at home and a bit of decorating before we go to South Africa.”

Andrew Flintoff is reportedly having 6ft mosaics of the Ashes urn installed in the swimming pools (yes, plural) of his £4 million mansion, but Broad’s ambition extends no farther than a couple of buckets of paint.

Nor does he plan to decorate his body, Flintoff-style. “My mum would never let me in the house again if I had a tattoo,” he said. In fact, he would rather if everyone stopped these comparisons to Flintoff altogether.

“No one can replace Fred,” Broad said. “It is important that I focus on my qualities and don’t try to be someone I’m not.”

He is not even that keen on taking Flintoff’s place at No 7 in the Test XI. Despite making five fifties in his 22-Test career — two of them in the Ashes — and having a respectable batting average of 31, Broad plays down that side of his game.

“My aim is to become a good No 8,” he said. “If the top six build a platform, that allows me and [Graeme] Swann to come and play with freedom as we did at the Oval. I just want to be awkward to bowl at.”

Flintoff has said that Broad’s batting is good enough to play as a specialist batsman and Geoff Boycott, praising the straight play of Broad, compared him to a young Garry Sobers, saying that Broad could make the same journey as Sobers from tailender — Sobers batted at No 9 in his first Test — to middle order.

It is an idea that Broad scoffs at. “I don’t think I can average 40 in Test cricket,” he said. “That’s a huge ask, even for recognised batsmen.” Say what you like about him, but Broad has no shortage of modesty.

Yet his life has naturally changed a great deal in a short time. Four years ago, he was in his first season of county cricket and was playing a championship game at Grace Road as the final Ashes Test began at the Oval. Last week, he was a guest on Jonathan Ross’s TV show, alongside Ricky Gervais — “He’s always been my hero” — and Jamie Oliver — “Such a lovely man” — and fame has other perks.

Earlier this summer, he complained that he was being asked for ID in pubs because he looks younger than his 23 years. “Bouncers still check my ID, but now it’s so they can say, ‘I thought it was you’,” Broad said.

“I’m comfortable with the attention and it is amazing how much support we have had. Everywhere I have gone since the Ashes, people have been coming up to me and saying ‘well done’ and that gives me a lot of drive. But the important thing is to go down a different path from what we did after the Ashes win in 2005. We have a massive opportunity in South Africa this winter and that’s what is important.”

The job does not stop there. Broad may be modest, but among his ambitions is to win the Ashes in Australia. England have not done that since Broad’s father, Chris, was in the side in 1986-87. The two matches England won in that series were the only successes in Broad Sr’s 25-Test career. Broad Jr already has won nine Tests, but until he can win the Ashes away from home, one suspects his father will take the bragging rights.

It means that other temptations will have to take a back seat. This, after all, is the player who turned down approaches from the Indian Premier League (IPL) last year so that he could prepare for a busy summer. “It helped that I was still pretty fresh and had a lot of time to get my mind round an Ashes series,” Broad said.

“My agent was speaking to different teams and I thought about it for some time, but it just wasn’t important this year.” One assumes he will be in demand at the next IPL auction, but his eyes do not light up with dollar signs. “It depends on how my body is and if anyone wants me,” he said.

His body is not so good at the moment. A neck injury suffered while fielding in the first one-day international against Australia on Friday kept him out of the second on Sunday and he will probably miss tomorrow’s game at the Rose Bowl as well.

“I dived for the ball, my elbow caught the ground and it jarred my shoulder and neck,” Broad said. “I went into a spasm. I’m having massage every day, but it is still a struggle to lift my arms. I think it is going to be tight for the Rose Bowl, but hopefully I’ll be back for the rest of the series.”

With Flintoff recuperating from his latest operation, England need Broad at full fitness, but on his own merits, not as a stand-in for you-know-who.

• Stuart Broad was speaking at a Vodafone event. For a chance to win England v Australia ODI tickets, visit vodafone.co.uk/nightwatchman