The electric return of Jofra Archer in England’s tight victory against India at Lord’s set straight a couple of narratives that arose during his four-year absence from Test cricket. It is often said that a player’s stock can rise when they are sat on the sidelines – yet sometimes, in some quarters, the reverse can also be true.
Chief among them was a reminder that England possess a special fast bowling talent here, Archer displaying the attributes that set him apart from others. As the man himself confidently put it regarding the 89.6mph beauty to Rishabh Pant that angled in, nipped away and gave the snappers the stumplosion they craved: “I guess it was just a matter of when, if I kept bowling like that. I can’t imagine many left-handers getting away with it.”
It is the moments of intensity that Archer can whip up in the middle and the questions he asks beyond simply pace and that shock‑ball of a bouncer. He is not a robot, of course, and small miscalculations can still lead to the odd rush of runs. Take the fourth evening, when he went too full in pursuit of the magical inswinger. But as a fast bowler feeling his way back into the rhythms of red-ball cricket, this was to be expected. Overall, Archer’s impact went beyond fine match figures of five for 107 from 39.3 overs.
England have never wavered from their belief that days such as these could return, hence repeated contract renewals since his debut in 2019 and despite those repeated stress fractures to his lower back and elbow. The support has been plentiful and the planning meticulous. Strength and conditioning coaches have even flown to Barbados to work with him at the club near his family home in Saint Philip. No expense has been spared.
Rob Key, the England team director, deserves credit for insisting on an ultra-cautious schedule; more cautious than just those 18 overs for Sussex suggested and more than the man himself felt necessary. Archer fancied himself to be ready for Test cricket a good while back, having trained to get in the best physical shape of his career. The slow 18-month buildup in the white-ball formats, he said, was like being in “training wheels”.
But at times England’s seven‑figure investment has been queried by sections of the support base; eyebrows raised at Archer playing in the Indian Premier League and questions about either his ability or desire (or both) to make it back to Test level. As Archer put it, he has had to battle the negativity of “keyboard warriors” on social media. Even the BBC made some jokey content this week about Jonathan Agnew betting against the comeback, not realising how this might have sounded to the man himself. “I never thought about not coming back, that was just you,” Archer deadpanned in response to this.
The roar that met Archer’s name being read out when he first came on to bowl at Lord’s – decibel levels that rose further when he jagged his third ball across Yashasvi Jaiswal and took the wunderkind’s outside edge – felt far more instructive, however. As tends to be the case more broadly in life, the mood of the wider public differs to the world online. Archer, World Cup winner and Ashes star six years ago, has far more support out there.
And not that Archer should have needed to prove his desire given the work to reach this point but, like pretty much every player on show in this hardcore India series, he put in a serious shift this past week. At the end he was still producing speeds of which most other seamers only dream.
Just ask Mohammed Siraj, who suffered a brutish stinger to the upper arm just moments before he was the last man to fall.
After walking off the field, the 2-1 series lead secured, Archer also sounded desperate to go again at Old Trafford, in the fifth Test at the Oval, and then get on the Ashes tour this winter. “I can play the other two Tests [against India] if they let me,” he said. “I told Key that I wanted to play the Test summer and I wanted to play the Ashes. One tick is already there. I will do everything in my power to be on the plane in November.”
With respect to India, who are serving up a mighty challenge and not least when it comes to taking 20 wickets, this is where English mouths naturally start to water even more: the prospect of seeing Archer in full flight on Australian surfaces that, in recent times, have been spicier than those witnessed during this home summer.
Another cause for optimism is that, in Ben Stokes, Archer has a captain who seems to understand him, not simply as a fellow fast bowler but as another cricketer about whom expectations were raised after that golden summer of 2019. “I think the mentality under Baz [the head coach Brendon McCullum] suits the way I like to play my cricket,” he said.
As has often been trotted out by McCullum these past three years, that mentality is one of staying present; to “plan as if you’ll live forever, but live as if you’ll die tomorrow”. When it comes to Archer and thoughts of what is to come, this feels the way to go.
