Jofra Archer what is cooking up with him? Jofra Archer is definitely an exciting cricketer. He belongs to the breed that is becoming rather rare. He is an express fast bowler who is capable of rattling even the best batsman. Witness his brute of a delivery to Steve Smith. Though it was unfortunate to observe someone getting hit on the head on a cricket field, that one delivery showcased to the world the real Jofra Archer.
West Indies would have certainly loved for him to play for them but he has opted to play for England. He cannot be faulted for his choice because a sportsman’s life is too short. Any sportsman will probably want to make the most of their playing career. If Archer felt that, with England, he will be able to lead a comfortable life after retirement, so be it. He is perfectly justified to do so.
I do not want to get into his bowling in IPL, BBL and other T20 leagues. I do not even consider them cricket. Test Cricket is the real form of the game followed by ODIs. Hence, I will stick to Archer’s test exploits so far or the lack of it.
Archer’s progress
Archer made his debut against Australia last year. He was and probably is considered a messiah for England’s lack of genuine fast bowlers. True to word, he did bowl exceptionally well in the first couple of tests against Australia. He touched 96MPH which is scorching pace. Even the great Steve Smith struggled to negotiate the extreme pace of Archer. England must have definitely thought and rightly so, that they have found a match winner who can rattle the Australian batsmen in the return series next year.
In partnership with Wood, the entire England team had the opinion that the next Ashes is theirs to lose. After awhile, something strange happened. It is not clear whether he is still influenced by the blow to Smith’ head but definitely, Archer seems to think that it is his and his own decision when to bowl at full pace and when to bowl well within himself.
In the last test against Pakistan, not once did he bowl at 90MPH leave alone bowling at over 90MPH. This despite that fact that the wicket had something for a genuine fast bowler. When confronted with a question about his drop in pace, Archer said that he cannot always bowl at 90MPH and that England fans should not expect that. It is fair enough but what he fails to understand is that this is a team game and there will be situations in every game, especially at the start of the day, when a fast bowler is expected to bowl with good pace. He also said that the Manchester wicket wasn’t one where the bowlers can bend their backs. However, evidence seems to prove the contrary. Pope’s wicket in the second innings is a testimony to that.
Root’s backing
Archer seems to be somewhat self-centred cricketer. Root has defended his trump card in public
“We just need to be very understanding that he’s still very young in his Test career, and that there will be mistakes and lessons to be learnt,” said Root. “But as long as he’s willing to learn from them and to keep looking to improve and get better, we will continue to see very special things from him.”
In reality, he wasn’t given the ball even after Shan Masood and Shadab Khan were involved in a century partnership. It goes onto show that even Root wasn’t pleased with his bowler’s attitude.
One of the great, Holding’s views
It looks like Archer seems to feel that he has a divine right to be playing test cricket for England, performance notwithstanding.
One of the greatest fast bowler the game has ever seen, Michael Holding, says that if any bowler can bowl at 95MPH, he must continue to do so. The batsmen must have sleepless nights thinking about such a bowler and he is correct. He also says that because of the elbow injury that Archer suffered, he subconsciously limits himself from bowling at full tilt. If Archer was injured, he should have been honest and should not have played the test.
Conclusion
Archer is young with lots of exciting years ahead of him but the sooner he realises that the game does not wait for anyone, the better it is for him and for world cricket. It really is hard to see a genuine fast bowler becoming a military medium bowler.
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