Archer’s World Cup bid picks up pace
STONE’S OMISSION MAY OPEN ENGLAND DOOR
England may have had the luxury of naming largely unchanged squads to tour West Indies in the new year but the name on everyone’s lips was that of a gifted allrounder who is not yet even available.
Ed Smith did his best to deflect talk about Jofra archer when he declared his hand for three Tests and five one-day internationals in the Caribbean — following England’s successes in Sri lanka — but it was impossible to avoid attention focusing on one of the most exciting emerging figures in cricket.
The decision of the ECB to reduce their residential qualification period from seven to three years has set the hare running on the introduction to England cricket of an all-rounder capable of bowling in excess of 90 miles per hour and hitting the ball out of the park.
and even though the Sussex allrounder is good enough to make a splash in all forms of the game, it is the extremely important 50-over tournament coming up in England next summer that is exercising the minds of those at the top of English cricket.
But, with archer not becoming available for England until March because of his decision to fulfil his Big Bash contract with Hobart later this month — and not yet completing his required number of days in England — time is running out if he is to gatecrash their World Cup party.
‘as it stands Jofra archer is not available for these tours so we did not consider him for selection,’ said national selector Smith, who insisted he had not yet talked to the Barbados-born cricketer with an English father and a British passport.
The former Kent batsman continued to play the straightest of bats when asked if archer should be ruled out of the World Cup.
England are due to name their provisional squad on april 23, before he will have had the chance to play any international cricket.
‘I wouldn’t rule anything out,’ insisted Smith, speaking at lord’s. ‘I don’t believe in that. When the decision comes up we will attend to it with as much focus and clarity as we can. I haven’t spoken to him and I don’t know if he could have got out of his Big Bash deal to try to make himself available. That’s not part of my brief. It’s my brief to consider all available players.’
England could include archer, 23, in that initial World Cup squad ahead of giving him his debut against Ireland in May and the five-match series against Pakistan that precedes the Cup.
For now, it is intriguing that England have left Olly Stone, a bowler of similar pace to archer, out of their one-day squad even though he made a decent impression in the three matches he played in Sri lanka and was deserving of another chance.
Could it be that England have decided their white-ball pace in future is going to come from archer? Or are they simply staying loyal to Mark Wood, who is chosen instead of Stone even though he played only once in Sri lanka? Time will tell.
Stone remains in the Test squad as does Joe denly, even though he failed to play any of the three Tests in Sri lanka after, frankly, looking out of his depth in the warm-up matches.
denly, at 32, survives as spare batsman ahead of Jason Roy — surely a better long-term bet as a possible Test opener. Ollie Pope has been sent back to lions cricket for now amid an unsaid belief that he was promoted ahead of his time last summer.
‘Joe denly has done all the right things,’ insisted Smith. ‘He’s had one game that counts on his record since his return to international cricket and he was man of the match ( in the Twenty20 against Sri lanka). He was overlooked in favour of Ben Foakes in galle and Ben fully grabbed his opportunity so I think it would be hard to criticise that decision.’
The only other slight surprise is that Sam Curran, the new golden boy of England’s Test cricket, is left out of the one- day squad now david Willey is fit again to provide left-arm seam and lower- middle order hitting. But Sam’s brother Tom makes the one-day cut.
England have not yet named their squad for three twenty20 matches that finish the Caribbean tour. They are not waiting for a certain Barbados- born all-rounder are they?
‘no that wasn’t a consideration,’ insisted Smith. ‘We have just left ourselves with maximum flexibility as to who can come out for those games.’