The clock had just ticked over to 1.46 p.m. on a warm Friday afternoon when Jamie Smith, the England wicketkeeper-batter, edged Mohammed Siraj to substitute wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel. In itself, it was a significant moment in the third Test. Smith had been a thorn in India’s side in both preceding Tests, had been dropped by K.L. Rahul at second slip off the same bowler when only five some two and a half hours previously and had breezed to 51 when Siraj finally had his man.
As Smith walked off to a warm applause, a lithe figure sprang off his seat in the dressing-room, made his long walk down the stairs, past the Marylebone Cricket Club members in the Long Room and emerged into the sunlight. It set off a more frenzied round of approbation from the 20,000-plus fans at Lord’s. The man walking out, at No. 10, hadn’t played Test cricket for more than four years. This was his return to the five-day game, after numerous false alarms.
Jofra Archer had become England cricket’s Most Valuable Property even before he first represented the country, in a One-Day International against Ireland in Malahide on 3 May 2019, just weeks before the start of the 50-over home World Cup. Formerly having played for West Indies at the Under-19 level in 2013, he made the move to England because he had a British passport – his father is English – and quickly made people sit up and take notice with his blistering pace from an unhurried run-up and an explosive but effortless action.
Dream start
It took him three years after his Sussex debut to win the nod to represent his adopted country – he was born in Bridgetown, Barbados – and he celebrated his England debut with three wickets in four successive matches at the World Cup, against Bangladesh, West Indies, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. He then defended 15, just about, in the Super Over after the final against New Zealand ended in a tie in regulation time, conceding just two runs off the last two deliveries to facilitate another tie, at the end of which England were declared champions, for the first time, on boundary countback.
Archer’s Test debut came exactly a month later, on 14 August 2019, also at Lord’s in the highest-profile clash of a high-profile summer – the second of five Ashes Tests. Archer’s reputation had preceded him at the World Cup; now, having seen him in action, the Australians were even more wary of the threat he posed.
The lanky quick had to wait nearly 100 minutes for his first wicket, Cameron Bancroft who was trapped leg before, but by the end of the Australian first innings, he had shown himself to be the real deal.
The defining moment of the Test came later in Australia’s first innings, with Steve Smith – in his second Test cricket after a ban for his part in the sandpapergate scandal in Cape Town in March 2018 – batting on 80. Smith had uncorked 144 and 142 in the first Test in Birmingham whilst singing the redemption song, and was holding Australia’s innings together with 80 of the finest in his team’s 203 for six. Armed with the second new ball, Archer stunned him with a sickening blow to the back of his head with a ball that spat off a length and kept following the champion batter. Smith went down in a heap, retired hurt, came back to make 92 but was ruled out of the second innings, and the next Test, with concussion. It was a terrible moment, but it was also the moment when the legend of Archer started to take shape.
Archer played each of the next three Tests, taking six for 45 in his third Test innings, in Leeds, and rounding off the series with six for 62 in the first innings of the final Test at The Oval. With 22 wickets in four Tests, he had justified the hype, he had showcased his substance, his X-Factor, his ability to make things, to shake batters up, to bring the spectators to the edges of their seat.
Injury woes
Over in India, Jasprit Bumrah was making waves with his own uniqueness. Test cricket braced for Archer to join him in the destruction stakes. What an exciting time ahead.
In theory, yes. As it turned out, while Bumrah has gone on to greater things and kept his tryst with superstar performances, Archer hasn’t followed suit, largely through no fault of his.
Fast bowlers have a few obvious target areas that stymie their progress – knees and ankles, the back. Not many have, however, had the misfortune of courting one injury after the other to the elbow. Archer’s uniqueness, it would appear, isn’t restricted to his bowling alone.
Between his debut and February 2021, in a little over a year and a half, Archer played 13 Tests for 42 wickets, around his early jousts with injuries. Then, his five-day career hit an absolute roadblock. Every time he was primed for a return, the spectre of injury raised its ugly head all over again. The sense of déjà vu was unmistakable, matched only by the peaking of the frustration levels – of Archer, of the England team management, of the other stakeholders of English cricket, and to the average fan who was reconciling to life without Archer in Test cricket, ever again.
But Archer himself didn’t lose hope. It could have been tempting to go down the white-ball lane, to dump the agony of surgery and rehabilitation to prepare for long bowls in the Test match cauldron. He could have chosen to make a name for himself playing just T20 and 50-over internationals and a fair bit of franchise cricket, and no one would have had an issue. But Test cricket, with its nip-and-tuck and its fascinating highs and lows, appealed to him immensely and Archer told himself that if he didn’t play another Test, it wouldn’t be for want of trying.
The second coming
And thus eventuated his second coming, at the same venue where he had made a name for himself in the World Cup final and on his Test debut. Throughout the summer, in the lead-up to the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in Nottingham towards the end of May, Archer bombarded Ben Stokes with single-word text messages: ‘Zim??’ Zim didn’t happen; it was destined to be Lord’s.
After the Zimbabwe Test, as England were playing India in Leeds in the first Test, Archer featured in his first County game for Sussex since the summer of 2021. In Chester-le-Street against Durham, he bowled 18 overs for one for 32, enough to convince Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum that he was ready for Test selection. England didn’t rush him back, though. They picked him for Birmingham but gave him time to integrate with the new set-up, only unleashing him at Lord’s, the place where he had stacked up numerous happy memories.
Archer must have had a song in his heart when he stepped over the boundary rope and took guard against Siraj. He was back, wasn’t he? His first ball back was an edge to third-man for four. A quarter of an hour later, he was dismissed by a peach from Bumrah, bowled through the gate. With a wry smile and a resigned mental shrug, he walked off, knowing his time with the ball was not far away.
Within 39 minutes, Archer was roaring like a lion, taking off on a wild run that was only halted by the slight figure of Shoaib Bashir running in from long-leg, rocked by the ferocity with which Archer thudded into him. There was a good reason for such frenzied celebration. Archer needed only three deliveries to make his first statement, having his Rajasthan Royals colleague Yashasvi Jaiswal caught in the slips in his first over with a trademark spitting cobra that squared the left-hander up.
His next ball, to Karun Nair, screamed past the batter’s nose at 93mph. Within four balls of his comeback, Archer had sent down the fastest ball of the series. What else was in store?
Four more wickets, as it turned out. Plenty of fire. Numerous ‘beat-the-bat’ routines. The odd body blow, such as the one Siraj copped on his left bicep late on day five. Jofra Archer was back, unmistakably so. Older, yes. Wiser, for sure. And just as hostile, make no mistake.
At Lord’s, left was right for Archer – all five of his victims were left-handers, including Jaiswal in both innings and Rishabh Pant in the second, bowled by a beauty that shaped in in the air, straightened brutally on pitching and rushed past his outside edge to send his off-stump cartwheeling. Just the previous over, Pant had charged Archer and swatted him, one-handed (he was favouring his left hand, injured index finger and all), through mid-on for an electric four. “Charge that,” Archer screamed as he sped past Pant, clearly still rankled at the audacity with which the little ‘keeper had treated him just minutes back.
Every time Archer had the ball in his right hand, before he set out on that graceful, loping run, two heavy gold chains dangling around his neck, there was a feeling that something was about to happen. It didn’t, not all the time, but there was something poignant and visceral in Archer attacking the bowling crease. There was a buzz of anticipation, the expectation that a spectacle was about to unfold. Not many bowlers possess that quality, that reputation.
As Joe Root pointed out, the very fact that Stokes turned to a bowler playing his first Test in forever to have a go at the most prolific batter of the series when Shubman Gill walked out to bat in India’s first innings was the ultimate show of faith, the ultimate vote of confidence, in Archer’s skills.
How England treat Archer for the rest of the series will be followed with interest. If he has a say, the 30-year-old would love nothing more than to play at both Old Trafford and The Oval. After all, he has so much catching up to do, doesn’t he?
