England playing XI for Lord's Test against India announced, Jofra Archer returns

On Wednesday, July 9, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced the playing XI for the third Test of the five-match series against the India National Cricket Team.

The third Test match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy between Ben Stokes-led side and Shubman Gill-led team is set to be played at Lord's in London from July 10.

Also Read: Harry Brook dethrones Joe Root to become No.1 Test batter, Shubman Gill shoots up rankings

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Jofra Archer returns after four years

England have made just one change to their playing XI for the Lord's Test by bringing in premier pacer Jofra Archer for the speedster Josh Tongue.

Recently, Brendon McCullum confirmed that Archer is fully fit to go, and now the pacer is set to make a comeback to the Test playing XI of England after four-plus years.

The 30-year-old's last Test outing came way back in 2021 during the match against India at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

His constant elbow and back issues kept him out of the England Test setup for a few years, and just recently, he came back to first-class cricket in the County Championship.

Jofra Archer played for Sussex against Durham, and in that match, he bowled 18 overs and picked up one wicket. Also, with the bat, he scored 31 runs in that match.

"England Men have made one change to their XI for the Rothesay Third Test against India at Lord’s, starting on Thursday. Sussex fast bowler Jofra Archer replaces Nottinghamshire’s Josh Tongue. It will be Archer’s first Test appearance since February 2021, also against India, in Ahmedabad," the ECB said in an official media release.

England Playing XI For the Lord's Test

Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Shoaib Bashir

I know it's 1-1 and I know that Lord's will be a great Test match - Kevin Pietersen

England National Cricket Team batting legend Kevin Pietersen recently spoke about the Lord's Test at an event and said that the opposition's teams tend to perform well at the venue, and the match against India would be hard for Ben Stokes & Co.

"I know it's 1-1 and I know that the Lord's will be a great Test match. It always is a great test match. The problem for England is whenever I played and whenever we played it always brings out the best in the opposition because you turn up at Lord's and it's such a historic ground that there's something that happens to a team," he said.

"We played Australia, South Africa or India, they always turned up and they always have a good Test match at Lord's because it's where you want to get on the honours board. So it's going to be hard for England, it's going to be very hard for England but 1-1, the weather's set fair, 30 degrees every day. If you're a batter, you want to be batting this week," he added.