India vs England 2021: Jofra Archer Lambasts Michael Vaughan For Questioning His Commitment Towards Test Cricket

England speedster Jofra Archer has lambasted former England captain Michael Vaughan for questioning his commitment towards Test cricket.

Archer, who made his Test debut for England in the summer of 2019, has always found himself under the scanner with critics and former cricketers like Michael Vaughan constantly questioning his drive and commitment towards the longest format of the game

Vaughan had recent written a piece in British Media where he had reckoned that England needs to find out the reason why Jofra Archer ‘doesn’t love Test cricket’.

Vaughan’s comments have come after Jofra Archer endured a forgettable Test outing in India where he managed just 4 wickets across two games while missing the other two due to his recurring elbow issues.

Taking strong exception to Vaughan’s comments, Jofra Archer, in his column for the Daily Mail, wrote that Michael Vaughan doesn’t know him well enough to come to a conclusion that he doesn’t love Test cricket. He added that his attitude towards playing for England hasn’t changed one bit and that he is still committed to playing in all three formats.

“Comments like ‘he’s not committed’ or ‘he’s not good enough’ appear as soon as you are not 110 percent. I find it quite annoying how people read into stuff and form their own opinions. I saw an article from Michael Vaughan in which he said, ‘if Jofra doesn’t love Test cricket, England needs to find out why.’ We’ve never had a conversation about cricket, so I found it a bit odd. He doesn’t know what makes me tick. He doesn’t know what’s driving me,” wrote Jofra Archer.

“Let me be clear about something: I’ve never changed my attitude towards playing for England. I’ve always wanted to play all three formats. That hasn’t changed, and never will as far as I’m concerned. I always dreamed of playing Test cricket and don’t feel I’ve had a bad game so far — yet unless I am taking four or five wickets in an innings, I am placed under scrutiny and some people start trying to decipher what’s going on,” added Jofra Archer.

Archer said that he is still making his way in Test cricket and the fact that he is averaging 31 in the longest format doesn’t bother him as he can always get better.

“Everyone must start somewhere, and I am still relatively new to Test cricket. I am making my way, much the same as the two great bowlers in this England set-up, James Anderson and Stuart Broad once did. And I am happy with a bowling average of 31 so far because I can get better,” explained Jofra Archer.

Archer also gave an update on his injury, shrugging off suggestions that his elbow issues are a recurrence of the stress-fracture he suffered last year. The pacer said that while the injury may have been caused by the same issue- bowling fast- the pain is in a different area of the elbow. He also confirmed that he is available for selection for the T20I series opener on Friday.

“There have been suggestions that this is a recurrence of my stress fracture last year, but I can confirm that while the injury may have been caused by the same thing — bowling fast — the pain is in a different area of the elbow. I’ve come through all the training sessions this week and I feel fit and ready to go for the opening match of the T20 series on Friday,” wrote Jofra Archer.

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