ENG vs BAN: Eoin Morgan Says It Would Be Naive To Think That England Will Play Jofra Archer In ICC World Cup 2023

Former England skipper Eoin Morgan opened up about the possibility of playing Jofra Archer in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023. He said that it would be naive of anyone to think that the pacer would be playing for the team in the tournament. 

Jofra Archer wasn’t named in the England squad for the ICC World Cup 2023. However, ECB mentioned that he will travel with the team and if fit he will be added to the team later. The pacer will fly to India soon and will link up with the team next week in Mumbai. 

Jofra Archer has been nursing an elbow injury for a while. He returned to action during the IPL 2023 but his injury reoccured and he was out of the entire English summer. There were chances that he would make it into the squad for the mega event as he was seen training with the team. 

Jofra Archer recently bowled in the nets during the ODI series against New Zealand last month. Since then he has been putting in hard work and has been bowling a lot, which has been a part of his rehabilitation. But there’s still no clarity on when he will be fit to play. 

Eoin Morgan pointed out that Jofra Archer has been bowling well in training but he doesn’t know if he’s capable of bowling in a match. Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, he explained: 

“Right here and now, I don’t know – because he’s not played, and we don’t know what he’s capable of. Obviously, the feedback about when he’s trained with the team has been that he’s back bowling beautifully, but you would like to see that in a game.”

Eoin Morgan Plays down talks of Jofra Archer playing for England soon 

Eoin Morgan highlighted that even if England brings Jofra Archer and plays him, they have to manage him, considering his injury problems. He, however, ruled him playing anytime soon. He explained: 

“You would like to see that in a continuous performance. You would have to manage that extremely well because, given the injury issue that he’s had in recent times, I think it would be naive of anybody to think [you should] just chuck him in whenever you can because we’re either desperate or feel that you are an option.” 

England suffered a massive 9-wicket loss against New Zealand in their first game of the ICC World Cup 2023, which also hampered their NRR. They would be looking to make a strong comeback in the second game, which will be played in Dharamsala against Bangladesh on Tuesday (10th October).