Star England pacer Jofra Archer has been out for a long, long time because of finger and elbow injuries, and he had to undergo three surgeries since last year.
His last competitive match was in July 2021, and his last international game was in March 2021. It has also been confirmed that Archer will miss action for the reminder of 2022 due to stress fracture of the lower back
Along with the England team, this has made the Mumbai Indians sweat. For they had made a massive punt in the last mega-auction by picking Jofra Archer for 8 crore. Despite knowing that Archer was all but certain to miss the IPL 2022, MI bought his services for a handsome amount in promise of a strong future with both Archer and Jasprit Bumrah; the Indian fast bowler also recently suffered a back injury that ruled him out of the T20 World Cup and a few months after that.
The good news for Mumbai Indians is that Archer’s recovery has sped up and the England fast bowler could return to action early next year. As per the Telegraph, England are feeling positive about Archer’s return on their January 2023 tour of South Africa. Of course, Archer’s return will be slow and the Three Lions were maintain extreme cautious as to not overbowl him, something which was lamented as a reason for his elbow injury.
Recently, England’s fan group, England’s Barmy Army, on Twitter posted a video of Archer practising in the nets and captioned it: “*whispers quietly* JOFRA IS BACK BOWLING”
*whispers quietly*
🚨 JOFRA IS BACK BOWLING 🚨
📹 TikTok: jofraarcher pic.twitter.com/hAm8YfyYHS
— England’s Barmy Army (@TheBarmyArmy) October 6, 2022
Archer made his IPL debut in 2018, had 46 wickets in 35 matches in 3 seasons for Rajasthan Royals. He was the Player of the Tournament in 2020 but was then ruled out of IPL 2021.
Archer was fast-tracked into England’s 2019 World Cup squad where he emerged as their leading wicket-taker and bowled the high-pressure Super Over in the final against New Zealand.
England would be happy with Archer’s return; also happy and patient will be the Mumbai Indians franchise who suffered a bottom-table finish in IPL 2022 as their bowling attack apart from Bumrah looked dull and non-threatening.
