Injury-free Jofra Archer ready to torment all comers again

More than any other delivery, it was a dot ball 45 minutes before tea on day two of Sussex’s recent County Championship trip to Durham that would most have piqued the interest of Neil Killeen, England’s elite pace bowling coach, monitoring from the balcony.

Killeen, a former Durham stalwart, had returned to his home county to cast his expert eye over the most anticipated red-ball comeback of recent times: after more than four years, Jofra Archer was injury-free and ready to prove himself capable of an England Test recall.

The 30-year-old had already taken a wicket and cranked up his pace when, six overs into his second spell of a laborious afternoon – a scenario his body had not encountered for considerable time – he ripped his final delivery past the outside edge of a hopelessly squared up Colin Ackermann. He grinned; Ackermann smirked. In one act was the surest indication yet that Archer maintains his capacity for long-form cricket.

“He bowled with good pace, he bowled with good accuracy, his body is in good shape, which is fantastic,” said Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace, who then urged England’s selectors to “be careful with him” and not throw him straight into a Test fray that he has missed for 52 matches.Poor weather, a flat pitch and a largely unhelpful Kookaburra ball meant Archer was denied the opportunity to properly showcase his endurance in a match that petered out into a draw without Durham batting again.

Nonetheless, on the basis of a miserly – in both senses – 1-32 off 18 overs, England ignored Farbrace’s concerns and added him to their squad for Wednesday’s Edgbaston Test.

“All options are available,” teased a permanently bullish Rob Key. “He could walk out there and bowl the first ball of the Test. We’re not concerned. If you didn't want bowlers to get injured you would never play them.”

The sensible option – which perhaps remains more likely – would be to hold him back until the third match against India at Lord’s while he reacquaints himself with the set-up. But the Key-Stokes-McCullum axis thrives on ignoring convention.

How Archer will fare when the time comes is a total unknown. His career will forever harbour the question of how his path might have altered if not flogged for 42 overs in a single marathon New Zealand innings on a lifeless Mount Maunganui pitch in late 2019.

Few had burst onto the international stage in such eye-catching fashion, starring in England’s thrilling World Cup triumph at Lord’s before bruising the Australians later that summer with the type of hostile fast bowling that had fans crowing.

Four years of subsequent elbow surgeries and back problems could so easily have prompted a switch to short-form specialism. But Archer always had longer aspirations. So it was off to Durham for his red-ball audition.

After striking a rain-delayed, flamboyant 31 – which ended when caught on the boundary edge attempting a second six in as many balls – he was then a curious omission from Sussex’s new-ball partnership. Belatedly, his trial of physical resilience could begin.

A four-over opening spell oiled under-used cogs, before he loosened liquid limbs post-lunch and ramped up the speed, forcing both batters to duck and fend off their noses. When a full in-swinger thudded into Emilio Gay’s pads, Archer had a first-class wicket after a gap of 1,501 days.

That he did not add to his tally spoke of misfortune rather than failings. It was at the end of that fiery six-over spell of outside edges and an increasingly populated slip cordon that he prompted a wry smile from Ackermann, whose survival had a fair dose of fortune.

“I know my body can hold up to it,” insisted Archer, having bowled more than 10 overs in a match for the first time since May 2021. That was sufficient for England’s selectors, no matter what others might think.

Photograph by Steve Welsh/PA Wire