Rob Key, managing director of England’s men’s cricket team, said Archer has not yet been ruled out of the World Cup. He cited the example of Australian captain Cummins, who had to wait six years between the first (in 2011) and second (in 2017) Tests because of injury, but he has returned with renewed vigor.
People like Pat Cummins missed a lot of cricket early in his career. Now Australia has seen the benefit of it, he has been able to spend season after season. Jofra deserves a bit of luck. The poor guy is very upset about what happened, and you just hope that luck will turn to him at some point, said Kee.
Archer spent 17 months on the sidelines after elbow and back injuries before returning to international cricket in January.
The 28-year-old, who will be out for the rest of the summer, played five matches for the Mumbai Indians before an injury ended his performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL) last week.
Ki further added: It’s going to be a pretty tough road to heal him, but I’m sure we’ll see him return at some point. We’ll look at everything we’ve done [in terms of rehab and workload]. Everything we did, we thought was right for the player first and foremost, not for anybody else. Just what was the best way for him to have the best career he could have had. And it didn’t work out. We’ll look at each thing.
Johnny Bairstow will take the gloves of the wicket after returning from a golf injury in September that kept him out of the T20 World Cup in Australia last year.
Ben Fawkes has been dropped from the squad to replace Bairstow, a key element in England’s ultra-aggressive approach to Test cricket Bazball, in the warm-up match against Ireland at Lord’s.
It was a very difficult decision to leave Ben Foakes out of the lineup, Key said.
He’s been great for England over the last year, but Johnny Bairstow is one of the best players in the world whose performances last summer epitomized what we do.
Attacker Chris Woakes has been called up to the Test squad for the first time since March 2022 and Durham bowler Mark Wood is also back after missing the New Zealand tour.
Injuries suffered recently by skipper Ben Stokes (knee) and seamer James Anderson (groin) were not serious and both remained in the squad.147252
Surrey batter Ollie Pope has been confirmed as England’s vice-captain ahead of the Ashes Series, which begins at Edgbaston on June 16.
England squad: Ben Stokes (captain), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zac Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Chris Walks, Mark Wood
-With Reuters Inputs