"Jofra deserves a bit of luck" - England cricket MD gives Pat Cummins' reference to Jofra Archer's comeback; claims World Cup dream not over
England Cricket's managing director Robert Key has claimed that speedster Jofra Archer is still not ruled out of the ODI World Cup next year in India. Archer has had terrible luck with injuries over the past couple of years as another elbow issue has seen him ruled out of the entire English summer.
However, Key gave the example of how Australian captain Pat Cummins struggled with injuries at the start of his career but eventually became a great bowler. He is hopeful of some rub of the green going Archer's way.
Here's what Robert Key was quoted as saying by The Indian Express on Jofra Archer:
“People like Pat Cummins missed a lot of cricket at the early stage of his career. Now, Australia have seen the benefit, he’s been able to put season after season together. Jofra deserves a bit of luck. The poor lad is pretty distraught with what’s happened, you just hope that luck turns for him at some point."
Robert Key on 'fairly taxing' road to recovery for Jofra Archer
After almost one and a half years away from competitive cricket, Jofra Archer made his England comeback in January this year and it seemed like he would get back to his best. However, recurring injuries mean that the board will need to once again carefully work around the rehabilitation.
Nevertheless, Robert Key still believes they will do whatever it takes to get Jofra Archer back to playing competitive cricket soon. He stated:
“It’s going to be a fairly taxing road to go down to get this fixed but I’m sure we’ll see him back at some point. We’re going to look at every single thing we’ve done [in terms of rehab and workload].
"Everything we’ve done has been what we thought was the right thing for the player first, not actually for anyone else. Just what was the best way for him to have the best career he could possibly have. And that’s not worked out. We’ll look at every single thing.”
Archer played just five games for Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2023 season before returning to England after a recurrence of an elbow injury.