After 22 months on the international sidelines Jofra Archer is back

After 22 months on the international sidelines, this is the unmistakeable sight of Jofra Archer, back in an England shirt and ready to make his return to international cricket in the first of a three-match one-day series against South Africa here in Bloemfontein tomorrow.

In this series and beyond, the question that will occupy English cricket this year, as he eases his way back towards full fitness after such a long absence, is whether this version of Archer, for all the excitement that his return engenders, can be the force he was before those injuries to his elbow and back interrupted his budding international career.

Will he be the same bowler who burst into the national consciousness in 2019, playing a central role in England’s World Cup win on home soil and then taking 22 wickets in four Tests – his first four Test matches, lest we forget – in the Ashes series that followed? And if he even approaches those rarefied heights, will such performances be sustainable in the longer term?

Asked yesterday whether he felt like the same bowler, having recently played five short-form matches in the SA20 competition, the 27-year-old’s answer was straightforward. “Don’t know,” he shrugged. “It’s just been good to play cricket and not actually have to worry if my body’s going to give way. I think that’s the most important tick for me so far.”

First things first. Having made his return in T20 cricket, the 50-over matches this week will be a further step in the public examination of his durability. Test cricket will be another matter altogether and the Ashes series that begins in mid-June can resemble only a speck on the horizon in terms of Archer’s fitness, even if the man himself is firmly setting his sights on proving his robustness so that he can renew hostilities with Australia.

The defence of England’s 50-over World Cup title, in India in October and November, is still further away, but Archer has needed long-term goals to maintain his motivation on his way back to the international stage. “Hopefully it can be a repeat of 2019,” he said. “We’ve got a 50-over World Cup again and an Ashes in the same year, so more of the same, please.”

His captain here, Jos Buttler, along with England’s Test captain, Ben Stokes, have attempted to ease him back into the fold by reassuring him that he is not expected to set the world alight in the early stages of his return.

Archer, who turns 28 in April, is not fooled. “[Stokes] said there is no expectation, so did Jos,” he said. “It’s nice to hear that, but people will have expectations anyway.”

He felt those expectations when he played the first of five games for MI Cape Town in the SA20 competition earlier this month. His first over was a wicket maiden, hurrying Wihan Lubbe into a pull to mid-on with his third ball, then delivering three dot balls to Jason Roy.

“Not playing for such a long time, I think everyone was watching and I sensed that, however that over went, I probably would have been judged for it,” he said. “I’m glad I was on the good end of it.”

And will he feel a similar awareness of the watching world on his international comeback? He nods. “Yeah, that is how sport goes. If I don’t do well when I play, a lot of people will be watching. I will be judged again and no one will remember the good stuff I’ve done. You are only as good as your last game.”

In those five appearances for Cape Town, Archer reckoned that he was operating at “probably about 80 per cent” of capacity, even though he reached speeds of 92.4mph. He generally looked to be enjoying himself, taking eight wickets from 19 overs in the five games, adopting the celebration of Manchester United star Marcus Rashford – pointing to his temple – along the way. “I don’t know what it means,” Archer said. “But I’ve seen him do it and he’s a pretty nailed-on guy.”

With each passing game, crucially, he moves further away from that painfully prolonged period of inactivity, which reached its nadir when, on the verge of a return from his elbow injury in May last year, he suffered the stress fracture that ruled him out of the rest of the 2022 season.

He spent most of his time away from the game back home in Barbados and coped with the disappointment, he said, with the help of friends and family and by extending his household to include six dogs: Sheba, a French mastiff he has had since he was 16, and five American bullies, Ace, Onyx, Ghost, Nova and Luna.

“I went a bit crazy a month after I got back to Barbados, I got about five dogs in the space of four weeks,” he said. “Just the routine kept me going, shovelling lots of poo and feeding lots of dogs. It’s their house, I just live there.”

The worst part of his absence came when he was watching England play in the T20 World Cup in Australia late last year. “I was screaming at the TV,” he said. “The hardest part of watching is not being able to help. You don’t even have to play, just being there to help. I almost bought a ticket to Australia.”

Now he hopes to string together enough injury-free performances to bring that vision of playing against Australia in the Ashes into clearer focus with an England Test team who have been revived so spectacularly under Stokes and Brendan McCullum, the head coach. He knows that his workload will be carefully managed by England to give him every chance of providing Stokes with another 90mph-plus weapon in his attack, perhaps in rotation with Mark Wood and Olly Stone.

“You can’t play every game, so you manage it by playing maybe two games, then one off, however the medical team sees fit,” he said.

“I might have to do some extra bowling during the week in India [to build his stamina during the IPL], but that is absolutely fine because I want to play in the Ashes, so I’m going to have to do the hard yards. But I don’t want to look too far ahead. I just want to have an impact in every game I play in.”

-The Times

Originally published as After 22 months on the international sidelines Jofra Archer is back