After years of injury torment, pace ace Archer, 29, has revealed to his captain when he hopes to make his long-awaited comeback in the five-day game – and it spells good news for England fans
England captain Ben Stokes genuinely believes Jofra Archer could end his four-year Test hiatus in May.
The pace bowler hasn’t played the five-day game since facing India in February 2021. That was the last of his 13 caps at Test level with a series of injuries ruining his chances ever since. Archer has endured a number of elbow surgeries and also back stress fractures to mean the Test career that promised so much when he first exploded onto the scene in the 2019 Ashes has never fully ignited.
Archer turns 30 in April but Stokes reckons the Sussex seamer could still make his mark at the elite level – and has revealed to the England captain his desire to do so. He today had his central contract extended, along with fellow seamers Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts, taking them all through to September 2026, which, of course, includes next winter’s Ashes in Australia.
But Archer, who has played for England’s one-day and Twenty20 sides this year, has targeted the one-off match against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge in May as his return to the Test format. In an interview with the Telegraph, Stokes admitted: “The excitement is understandable around Jofra.
“We have seen him come back in and play quite a lot of cricket for England over the last 10 months to a year. The best thing is he is back on the field playing. I am sure he might have thought he might not have the chance to put on an England shirt again and the injuries and surgeries he has gone through could have ended other people’s career so there is no rushing back for anything for Jofra.
“He is being handled very well by the ECB and that will certainly continue, but Jof is a man of few words, even over WhatsApp.
“I had one a couple of months ago saying ‘Zimabwbe?’. So yeah that shows he is very interested in playing Test cricket for England.”
Asked if he thought the Zimbabwe question was a joke, Stokes replied: “No, I genuinely think that because everything is going so well for him. He is desperate to play Test cricket for England.”