GOLDEN ARCHER
Yes it’s tough on Willey but Jofra should be in every England team for the next decade. This is the start of something very big
Willey can have no real complaints about being the odd man out
THEy may have called it a ‘ very difficult’ decision but in truth it was a no-brainer. Not only was Jofra Archer an automatic pick for England’s World Cup squad yesterday, but he should adorn every team in all formats for the next 10 years. This could be the start of something very big.
David Willey, described as an ‘outstanding human being who reacted exactly as you’d expect him to’ by national selector Ed Smith, can have no real complaints about being the odd man out in a squad brimming with exciting and dynamic possibilities.
The reality is Archer was always going to be included and England had seen enough against Ireland in Dublin and in the rain-ruined
first one-day international against Pakistan at the Oval to rest him for all but one of the remaining Royal London matches.
Archer, the Barbadian with an English father and a British passport, was a shoo-in and the difficult bit came when England had to decide which deserving bowler had to make way.
Willey, as revealed by MailOnline on Monday, misses out because there are three better new-ball bowlers — Archer, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes — and he does not bowl fast enough or do enough with the ball to operate in the middle overs and at the death.
As a chip off the old bloke as the son of one of the toughest men in cricket, Peter Willey, David might have been expected to take the call badly, but by all accounts, including his own on Twitter, he took it on the chin. Not least because he is first reserve now.
Willey might yet have his day, particularly with Wood’s left ankle being so fragile, but the Smithinspired experiment of having Joe Denly around as a utility player was rightly discarded for a better spinning option, Liam Dawson.
Unless the Kent man was a proper rival for James Vince as the spare batsman, he was miscast and now, rightly, he will be able to concentrate on red-ball cricket in an attempt to nail down the No 3 spot in the Ashes.
It is a slight concern Dawson’s promotion from outside the initial 17-man squad was partly put down to concerns over Adil Rashid’s fitness — the leg-spinner will have a third cortisone injection in his right shoulder today — but at least the Hampshire left-armer is a proper spinner, unlike Denly, and only lost his place in Sri Lanka last winter through injury.
‘ We hope and believe the injection Adil is having will help him play a full and terrific part in the competition,’ said Smith at Lord’s yesterday. ‘The selection wasn’t an easy decision at all because players who have done well have ended up missing out.
‘It required a lot of thought and analysis,’ added Smith on what became a 90-minute selection meeting. ‘We looked through all the permutations and we’ve come up with 15 that we’re all very comfortable with.’
They should be comfortable with Archer. It may be convenient that the qualification period was reduced from seven years to three by the ECB at the end of November, but they cannot be blamed for wanting to fast-track Archer.
The 24-year-old has the potential to be one of the stars of the international game, starting with the World Cup and Ashes, and has fitted in well with England despite concerns from bowlers, particularly Willey, about the fairness of an ‘outsider’ claiming a place at the 11th hour.
‘I had it in my head I would have to wait seven years to qualify and I would have waited however long it had taken,’ said Archer, who turned his back on West Indies after they failed to pick him for an Under 19 World Cup. ‘But they changed it last year.
‘I think I’m ready,’ Archer told Sky. ‘I’ve played a lot of cricket outside 50 overs and I know how to deal with pressure and crowds,’ added a man with just 17 ‘List A’ 50-over appearances behind him.
‘It’s because of franchise cricket that I haven’t played much List A for Sussex, but you don’t forget how to bowl. Everybody has welcomed me with open arms. It’s a great team to be part of and it’s really exciting to be involved in this huge summer of cricket.’
One player definitely not involved is Alex Hales, so recently a key member of this England one-day squad but now virtually persona
non grata after the emergence of a second failed drugs test and his immediate exclusion at the behest of the senior players. Hales was not mentioned in England’s press release announcing the squad, while Smith revealed his name had not even come up in the selection meeting.
The ICC have refused England permission to allow Vince, who has replaced Hales, and his Hampshire team-mate Dawson to play in the Royal London Cup final against Somerset at Lord’s on Saturday. They will now join the rest of the squad in Southampton.
With spectacularly bad timing for the prominence of the one-time one- day showcase county final, England will continue their World Cup build-up on the same day at the Ageas Bowl against Australia.
The prospect of Archer bowling to Steve Smith and David Warner is enticing — and the perfect reminder that cricket’s biggest summer is about to take off.