NEWS
Follow UsRob Key, England’s managing director, has hinted that Jofra Archer might have to miss a few Tests during England’s home series against India next year because of his participation in the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL). Key mentioned that Archer’s decision to play IPL next year will put him “a couple of months behind” schedule to mark his return to Test cricket.
Since his last Test, more than three years back in February 2021, Archer has suffered a string of injuries in his back and elbow that made him miss a lot of international cricket. However, 2024 has come with promising signs with Archer remaining injury free and playing six ODIs and 14 T20Is this year, including the 2024 T20 World Cup. Considering the same, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) extended his central contract beyond the Ashes 2025/26.
Key said he had planned for Archer to represent Sussex at the start of the County Championship next year in April and May in the build-up to the five-match series against India. This would have also marked his return to red-ball cricket. He played his last first-class match in May 2021. But the IPL deal means he won’t have any red-ball practice which diminishes his chances of starting the summer against India.
Rajasthan Royals signed Archer in the IPL mega auction in Jeddah at INR 12.5 crore, outbidding Mumbai Indians in a bidding war. Archer was one of the notable players missing from the shortlist of 574 cricketers to be auctioned. The ECB had made the case that they were still managing his injuries. He was then a late addition to the shortlist and one of the most prominent players in the auction.
Key mentioned that the new rules in IPL coerced the ECB to grant Archer permission to feature in the mega auction. According to the new rules, if a player misses the mega auction, then he will be ineligible for the upcoming set of mini auctions, which in this cycle meant the 29-year-old would have been ruled out of the next two IPL seasons as well.
"Jofra is always brilliant to deal with," Key said, in an interview on Wisden Cricket Weekly's Patreon channel. "We were like, 'The best thing might be to miss the IPL this year and get yourself ready, and we'll start building your loads up if you can get through a bit of Championship cricket, and then you can start the Test summer. He was happy with that.
"But we had to look and see what India were going to do with [the IPL's rules]. They [the BCCI] came back after a bit of back-and-forth and said, 'Well no, he won't be allowed to go into this year, next year from then on. So then you start thinking that could be about $4 million that he loses out on there.
"We believe there's a lot of water to go under the bridge for that, but we still think he'll be alright. We'll just be a couple of months behind. So then Jofra decided that he felt the best thing for him was to go into the IPL [auction], which we had no issue with, and then do that loading throughout the IPL and get himself ready for the Test series that way,” he said.
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