“Hopefully, he's not feeling any pain” - Mark Boucher has a cautious take on Jofra Archer’s comeback

Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mark Boucher was pleased with Jofra Archer’s performance in his comeback IPL 2023 match against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Saturday, April 22. Although Archer conceded 42 runs in his four overs while claiming one wicket, Boucher asserted that the England cricketer bowled at a good pace.

Injury-prone Archer made his debut for MI in the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Bengaluru on April 2. However, he was declared unfit for the subsequent games and made his comeback to the playing XI on Saturday.

While Archer went for plenty of runs, he got the wicket of England teammate Sam Curran (55 off 29 balls). Reflecting on the pacer’s performance against Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Boucher said in a post-match press conference:

"I thought Jof [Archer] bowled at some good pace. He landed a couple of yorkers. The wicket was good to bat on and thus, we knew it was going to be a tough night for our bowlers. For that, I think for his first outing, we'll take it.

"Hopefully, he's not feeling any pain tomorrow and he can be up and running and put his name in the selection for the next game. It's always good to see Jof running in at full pace so we're grateful for that."

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Injury and fitness woes kept Archer out of international cricket for nearly two years. He made a comeback in January 2023 in an ODI series against South Africa.

“His form is a funny thing, sometimes you judge it by the numbers” - Boucher on Suryakumar Yadav

While Mumbai went down to Punjab by 13 runs in a chase of 215, Suryakumar Yadav played a splendid knock, smashing 57 in only 26 balls. Suryakumar and Cameron Green (67 off 43) added 75 runs for the third wicket to give the chasing side hope.

Speaking on Suryakumar’s knock, Boucher commented:

"It's always nice for Suryakumar Yadav to get some runs. His form is a funny thing, as sometimes you judge it by the numbers. He's been hitting the ball really well in the nets and it was just a matter of time before he translated that into runs. So, I'm very happy for him.

"He'll feel very comfortable. For Mumbai Indians, having him in some good form, hitting the ball so sweetly and playing the sort of devastating innings he did tonight, bodes well for the future for us going forward.”

MI lost their way after Green and Suryakumar’s dismissals and finished on 201/6 as Arshdeep Singh claimed 4/29.