The England Bowler Jofra Archer has been rested for more than 3 months from England squad due to the elbow stress fracture he suffered during the IPL 2023. With his rehab to be scheduled in the upcoming days, the presence of the player in the World Cup squad remains a question.
Jofra Archer excluded from England World Cup Squad
England announced their provisional 15-member squad for ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in India on Wednesday. Jofra Archer has missed the selection in England’s World Cup squad after failing to prove his fitness before time and will only fly to India as a travelling reserve thinking about something miracle in his recovery from injury.
Jofra Archer is England’s leading wicket-taker when they won the last tournament four years ago. But he is sidelined from actions due to his injury during IPL 2023.
Luke Wright, one of the England selectors and former Sussex team-mate says England were “desperate” for him to be fit and join the squad in the big tournament but they have no intention to “force him into playing” ahead of his rehab.
“There has got to be a duty of care with Jof,” Wright said. “We know how desperate we all are to have him – there’s no doubt about that – but we’ve also got to get it right for him.
He’s been very unfortunate with these injuries… regarding the World Cup, unfortunately, we’re just running out of time.
“He’s not going to come round quite quick enough, especially for the first part of the World Cup. There is a duty of care with him. We have to make sure that long-term, we get it right because we see him as a huge asset for a long time.
As much as the temptation is to try and rush him in and get him in for the start of this World Cup, unfortunately, we’re just going to run out of time.”
England has picked six seamers in their 15-member squad which is said to be temporary until September 28 and expects a huge workload for their seamers.
Most of their choices are suffered with injuries at some occasions last few years and they hope Archer to be playing in the second part of the World Cup.
“I don’t think we can, unfortunately, have him in the squad to start with,” Wright said. “Best-case scenario for Jof really at the moment would probably be [that he is] available for the back-end of the tournament. That’s the best-case scenario, which obviously, in a squad of 15, is going to leave us quite light.
“The last thing we want to do is really to put a massive time [limit] on him and try to push him and force him into playing before he does [feel ready]. We’ve got to get him right, first and foremost.
“But is there an opportunity or a place where potentially he could play at the back-end of a tournament if all things go well and there was an injury? Yes, there’s a potential chance. But obviously, a lot of things have still got to go right with this rehab before then.
“When you look at that squad, you cannot have a bowler that might not be available for the second half and definitely not for the first half. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do it.
If something miraculous happens with him, we have time to change things but I just don’t see it happening. It is just coming too soon and we can’t rush this decision on Jof this time.”
World Cup 2023 is scheduled to be hosted by India starting from October 5 with ten teams to be played in 10 venues.
England’s World Cup Squad 2023
Jos Buttler (captain), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.
