Jofra Archer begins training, likely to play for Mumbai Indians in Tata IPL 2023: Mumbai Indians (MI) signed England pacer Jofra Archer is likely to be available for the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, giving a major push to MI ahead of the IPL 2023 Auction in December. MI purchased Jofra Archer during Tata IPL 2022 Mega Auction by shelling out a whopping INR 8 Crores against the likes of Rajasthan Royals, who were also actively bidding for the pacer.
As per the report of Cricbuzz, Jofra Archer is currently with the England Lions squad in the UAE and his recovery has been encouraging so far.
“He is currently in the UAE with the England Lions team and is continuing his rehab,” said a spokesperson of England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as stated by Cricbuzz. “He is making excellent progress and the view is that he will be looking to play competitively again during the early part of 2023,” he added.
Notably, the 27-year-old fast bowler picked up the elbow injury during England’s tour of South Africa in 2019-20. The injury was serious enough and required a couple of surgeries. Following his recovery from the elbow injury, he suffered a stress fracture on his back which kept him away from competitive sports for the entire year. Archer hasn’t featured in any international cricket match since July 2021.
Despite his injury scare, Mumbai Indians played a tremendous gamble by aggressively bidding for him during the IPL 2022 mega auction with the hope that the pacer would be fit to play in the upcoming season of the Indian T20 league. And now it seems Mumbai’s gamble has started to give rewards as the speedster is likely to be available in IPL 2023.
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If the reports turn out to be true it will provide a huge boost for the Mumbai Indians (MI). Fans would be able to see two of the deadliest bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer, bowl in tandem, which will be a nightmare for the batters.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Bobat, ECB’s performance director, said that the Barbados-born pacer will play some meaningful part in the ongoing training camp.
“I rang Jofra to talk to him about this training camp,” Bobat said, “and he said to me, ‘this is the first positive selection call I’ve had in a long time.’ We had a bit of a giggle about the fact that all he’s had is difficult injury news recently and he’s missed having someone tell him he’s been picked for something.”
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