Jofra Archer has suffered yet another setback after his elbow injury resurfaced in his return to the County Championship game against Kent. Archer went back from the field after bowling just five overs in Kent’s second innings of the game.
Sussex coach Ian Salisbury confirmed in his address to the press that Archer’s elbow was sore and hence his inability to open the bowling in Kent’s second innings created confusion in the Sussex team.
However, he opened the bowling and bowled five overs to extract the opening wicket of Jordan Cox in what could well be his last over of the game as suggested by Salisbury.
“I think there was some confusion about the state of Jofra’s elbow. Ben thought he was going to bowl but his elbow was sore and there was confusion over that and he couldn’t bowl. If you saw today, he’s not going to bowl tomorrow. You’ll have to ask the ECB,” Salisbury said.
Jofra Archer first suffered this elbow injury on England’s tour of South Africa in late 2019 due to a stress fracture. He recovered to make it to the Indian Premier League 2020 but the problem resurfaced on the tour of India earlier this year. The elbow injury combined with a freakish finger injury ruled Archer out from two out of four Tests against India.
Archer’s elbow injury has been a persistent headache for England team management especially with the Ashes scheduled to take place at the end of this year.
A lot of hope and expectations were built on Archer’s return to the longest format for Susses after going through surgery on his finger. However, another episode of recurrent elbow injury has squashed England’s hopes of settling down concerns with regard to Archer’s fitness and availability in the Test format.