Jofra Archer Could Quit Playing For England, Warns Kevin Pietersen

Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen believes that Jofra Archer could quit playing for England if the English team-management does not communicate well with the Barbados-born allrounder. Kevin Pietersen, whose own career with England ended in an unceremonious manner, warned England they were in danger of driving Jofra Archer away from international cricket with their insensitive treatment of him on the ongoing tour of South Africa.

In a recent interview, Kevin Pietersen suggested that there were those briefing against Archer, ‘an outsider’ like Pietersen, in a faint mirror of what happened to him towards the end of his England career. The legendary batsman suggested that England need to talk to Jofra Archer instead of critising him in the media briefings.

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In recent times, there have been questions raised over the attitude and performance of Jofra Archer. In the two-Test series in New Zealand, he picked up just two wickets while bowling 82 overs. In South Africa too, he failed to do well in the first Test.

After picking up 1 wicket in the first innings of the Centurion Test, he picked up five in the second but was far from being impressive. In the second innings, he conceded 6 runs per over during his spell of 17 overs and was taken to cleaners by Quinton de Kock. Since then, he has missed all the other three Tests with an elbow injury.

And as Jofra Archer tries to find his foot into Test cricket, Kevin Pietersen has advised England to deal with the player cautiously or they could lose him. Kevin Pietersen believes that if situation escalate then Archer might quit international cricket in order to play franchise cricket.

“Deal with the player. First question: does he want to play Test cricket? If I was in that environment, that’s what I would ask. ‘Dude, do you want to play Test cricket or not? Because if you don’t, that’s no problem. Tell us, it’s absolutely fine. I’ll use you like we did in the World Cup, to win a World Cup that united the nation, produced a huge day for English sport, ended up with English cricket winning huge awards on BBC Sports Personality of the Year. I’ll use you there. You don’t have to play Test cricket’.

“That’s what England’s management should say. But don’t start f****** briefing the media. ‘Is he injured, is he not, does he want to be part of the team?’ No — that’s nonsense. I’m against that,” Kevin Pietersen told Daily Mail.

“The situation with Archer could escalate. You guys can get a story that lasts a long time but is he going to win? No. Does English cricket win? No. We might lose him from all cricket. He might decide ‘stuff you guys’ and just go and play franchise cricket,” he added.