Root: I did not over-bowl Archer
Morgan’s team face battle to avoid rare series defeat Test captain Root admits T20 career could be over
Joe Root has denied he over-bowled Jofra Archer causing the serious elbow injury that has put him out of action for three months.
England’s handling of Archer is under scrutiny after he was diagnosed this week with a stress fracture in his right elbow after months of pain and swelling in the joint. Archer has not played since the Boxing Day Test at Centurion and has been forced to pull out of England’s tour of Sri Lanka next month and the Indian Premier League.
He is unlikely to be fit for the start of the English domestic season, but England are hopeful he will be back in time to prove his recovery and fitness for the opening Test of the summer against West Indies in June.
Archer has bowled nearly 600 deliveries more than any other England bowler since he made his debut in a one-day international against Ireland in Dublin. He played every game in the World Cup and four Ashes Tests.
“I wouldn’t say he’s been overbowled,” Root said. “Before he played for England, he played a huge amount, and he came into international cricket and took the world by storm.
“We are clear on what the injury is now and it ended up being the right call for him not playing in that last Test match. I think it will be good for him to have a mental break, to get refreshed.”
It is three years since England lost a one-day series, so there is plenty for Eoin Morgan to learn about his younger players at the Wanderers today.
The ground will turn pink for cancer awareness in South Africa and is a sellout, too, so the old Bullring may bare its teeth in a way it never did during the Test match due to the large contingent of England supporters.
Most of those have gone home now, leaving the ground to the locals, who will have been encouraged by the performance under new captain Quinton de Kock in Cape Town on Tuesday.
The washout in Durban on Friday leaves South Africa 1-0 up and close to claiming a major scalp in the world champions.
England lost only three series between the 2015 World Cup and last year’s tournament, and their last defeat was away to India in January 2017, when they went down 2-1.
The Wanderers has been a good ground for England in Test cricket on recent tours, but they have beaten South Africa only once in an ODI in Johannesburg, in 2005, and lost a close match four years ago when Adil Rashid dropped match-winner Chris Morris, who led a stirring comeback from the dead.
Rashid is here in South Africa but England seem certain to hold him back until the Twenty20 series next week as they look to give experience to Matt Parkinson so Morgan can gauge his future options.
The captain wants to see his younger players perform under pressure and a large Wanderers crowd and a series on the line is a good way to discover who has the mettle.
England had planned to pick Parkinson for the first two matches and then recall Rashid with the series wrapped up. But the defeat in Cape Town and the Durban rain has ruined those intentions and Parkinson deserves another game to show what he can do, especially under pressure with a series on the line.
The quicker pitch and extra bounce should help his slow turn, but the thin air on the High Veldt makes the Wanderers a six-hitting ground and it is where AB de Villiers smashed the quickest one-day hundred in history, off 31 balls in the Pink ODI four years ago, so it will be a real examination of Parkinson’s nerve.
Parkinson does not lack bottle and Morgan insisted after the Durban match that if he made any changes it was only to give players who are going to be part of the T20 team some game time before that series starts in East London on Wednesday, rather than an emergency call-up out of desperation to win.
Just 11.2 overs were possible at Kingsmead, during which South Africa made 71 for two, and the weather forecast in Johannesburg is unfavourable too, although storms tend to pass through quicker than in Durban and the ground has far more sophisticated drainage.
The real focus for England is the three Twenty20s that follow. Dale Steyn was yesterday named in South Africa’s squad for those matches and, even at the age of 36, and after years of chronic shoulder injuries, he will bring a sharp edge. Steyn, the finest fast bowler of his generation, has not played international cricket for a year, but recently appeared in the Big Bash and wants to make it to the Twenty20 World Cup in October.
De Villiers is also available for that tournament, but has not been picked for the England series.
Twenty20 cricket looks to be over for Joe Root, who has finally accepted he has no part in England’s plans. He has been phased out by England in recent months and will go home after today’s ODI.
England believe they have others with greater power than Root and also want him to rest, leaving him fresh for the two Tests in Sri Lanka next month. It is a sensible decision in both parties’ interests, even though Root is keen to play T20.
“I think being honest, looking at the squad, and the players that are performing around the world in T20 competitions, I’m probably not in the best XI,” the 29-year-old England Test captain admitted.
“For that reason, I’m being left out and that’s part and parcel of cricket. Sometimes you have to take that on the chin.
“It’ll be difficult for me to get opportunities to prove a point and play in domestic cricket, so it is what it is. I love white-ball cricket full stop, but Test cricket is a big priority for me.”
Runs at the Wanderers today would be a good way for Root to sign off from what has personally been a successful tour on the road to the next Ashes.