Injured Archer adds to second Test fears

ENGLAND may have been sickness-free yesterday for the first time on what the players have started to call ‘The Cursed Tour’ but they had a big injury blow when Jofra Archer was unable to bowl in the Newlands nets and was rated doubtful for tomorrow’s second Test. An England squad, extended to 19 players with the emergency call-up of Dom Bess and Craig Overton due to the illness that swept through the party, all trained at this magnificent ground but Archer could only bat because of a sore right elbow. He first felt the problem on arrival in Cape Town and, if he cannot bowl today, then he will be ruled out of a Test England cannot afford to lose, paving the way for offspinning all-rounder Bess to replace him. The brown Newlands pitch has convinced England coach Chris Silverwood to abandon their all-seam policy and go with a slow bowler on what is expected to be a much flatter surface than Centurion. And it is Bess, the man brought as cover, who will play ahead of the spinners originally selected in Jack Leach and Matt Parkinson. Leach was the worst hit of all the England players by illness and only bowled properly for the first time on tour yesterday, leaving him far from ready for a Test. Parkinson, meanwhile, simply did not look a Test bowler in the two warm-up games in Benoni and, Sportsmail understands, he has not impressed the England management with his attitude either. His selection for this tour is looking like a major selection mistake.