Rajasthan Royals is sweating over the availability of their star bowler Jofra Archer for IPL 2021. The England Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed on Sunday about Jofra Archer’s consistent issues with elbow injury. The pace bowler will miss ODI series against England as he returns home this week. Archer is also going to miss the first half of IPL due to this injury.
This injury had previously ruled him out of the second and fourth tests again India. ECB believes that the injury has further aggravated during T-20 series. Archer played all five T-20 games against India in the last two weeks.
According to reports, Archer has also decided to opt out of the initial stages of IPL in order to be fully fit for the T20 World Cup and Ashes later this year. Archer hasn’t been ruled out of the entire tournament yet, giving Rajasthan Royals glimmer of hope. England head coach Chris Silverwood considers the decision from fast bowler “very satisfying”.
“It was a joint decision. Both parties have put England first, basically. He needs to get this right. He needs some time to do that so we’ve made space to make sure that we gave him the best chance of being successful for England.”
Rajasthan will suffer a big blow if Archer does not feature at all during IPL 2021. He was one of the top wicket takers in the tournament last year. His accurate and incredible pace bowling helped RR to consistently take wickets in the powerplay. RR will have to look for a replacement if Archer is going to miss big chunk of games during IPL 2021.
While giving an update on Archer’s injury, ECB also announced the 14 man squad for the upcoming ODIs. Along with Archer, Joe Root will also miss this series. Leg-spinner Matt Parkinson has been re-called after a year of his ODI debut, while Moeen Ali has also been retained in the squad. The ODI series will take place in Pune from March 23 until March 28.