JOFRA ELBOWED OUT
Archer’s winter looks over as injury rules him out of T20 series
JOFRA ARCHER’S winter with England could be over after injury ruled him out of the three-match Twenty20 series against South Africa next month.
Archer has been dogged by bone stress in the right elbow throughout the tour, reducing him to a single appearance in the 3-1 Test series victory — the opening defeat in Centurion.
The 24-year-old fast bowler was always going to miss the one-day part of the tour, which starts on Tuesday, but was due to return for the three T20s.
However, hours after Archer revealed to Sportsmail that his place in the T20 series starting on February 12 was in jeopardy, the ECB confirmed he had flown home. ‘It’s getting better slowly, but it might be another two weeks,’ Archer said. ‘I couldn’t bowl at all in Cape Town. Now I’m bowling at a higher intensity but not the highest intensity.
‘I had (the elbow issue) in the World Cup last summer and then started to feel it in the first Test.’
Archer was expected to play in the final Test at the Wanderers but was kept on the sidelines by a flaring of the injury.
England will have to decide whether to try to get him fit for the two-Test series on the potentially docile surfaces in Sri Lanka in March, or allow one of their primary assets to recuperate fully for a busy year that features a T20 World Cup in October.
The three T20s against the Proteas will be the beginning of the build-up to that competition in Australia, with A-listers such as Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler returning having missed the 3-2 win in New Zealand. England were keen to have Archer, who has only one T20 cap, involved too after his stellar performances with the white ball in the 50- over World Cup. But he has been replaced in the squad by Lancashire’s Saqib Mahmood, who will stay on at the end of the ODI series.
The ECB yesterday confirmed last month’s story in Sportsmail that Mahmood was one of three emerging pace prospects to be given a new development contract by the ECB for the next eight months. Craig Overton, of Somerset, and Warwickshire’s Olly Stone are the other two who have the potential to play their way into plans for the 2021-22 Ashes. They will work more closely with England coaches and the ECB will have a heavier influence on their workload.
The governing body will pay the majority of their wages until September 30 in a newly-devised sub-layer to the central contracts system. Fully-contracted players are paid entirely by the ECB.
‘Having a strong supply line of high-quality seam bowlers is an essential ingredient for sustained success in both white and redball cricket,’ said Ashley Giles, England’s managing director.
Meanwhile, Australian batsman Jake Fraser-McGurk has been forced to come home from the Under 19 World Cup in South Africa after being scratched on the face by a monkey on a team outing following their nail-biting win over England last week.
Medical advice was for FraserMcGurk to return to Australia within seven days for specialist treatment. He said: ‘It serves me right for getting too close to the animal enclosure.’ BEN STOKES revealed last night that his father Ged, 64, is heading home after being admitted to intensive care in Johannesburg on December 23.
Stokes tweeted: ‘ 37 days in hospital, three surgeries and he’s finally on his way home. You are strong and you are stubborn which is why you are still with us. I am so proud to be your son.’