England fast bowler Jofra Archer has hit back at his critics, including former captain turned pundit Michael Vaughan, and emphatically said he wants to play both red and white-ball cricket.
Writing a column for theDaily Mail, Archer said: “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 saw one article from Michael Vaughan in which he said: ‘If Jofra doesn’t love Test cricket, England need 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.
“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.
“Comments like ‘he’s not committed’ or ‘he’s not good enough’ appear as soon as you are not 110 per cent. I find it quite annoying how people read into stuff and form their own opinions.”
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The 25-year-old, who famously struck Australian batsman Steve Smith on the head with a bouncer on Test debut at Lord’s and starred in their World Cup win in 2019, missed the second and fourth Tests in the recent 3-1 series defeat to India.
Archer confirmed in his Daily Mail column that he had an injury to his right elbow but that it was different to the stress fracture of last year.
The former Hobart Hurricanes spearhead also took exception to what he perceived was unfair criticism about his form.
“Everyone must start somewhere, and I am still relatively new to Test cricket,” Archer wrote.
“I am making my way, much the same as … (James) Anderson and (Stuart) Broad, once did. And I am happy with a bowling average of 31 so far because I can get better.
“The beauty of where those two are in their careers, with so many wickets to their names, is that they get the benefit of the doubt if they have a quiet match of only one or two wickets.
“People will argue, quite rightly, that they have got to where they are for a reason and will come back strongly, whereas I don’t feel there is the same understanding given or faith placed in others.”
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Archer took three wickets in England’s first Test victory in Chennai, including openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill in the first innings before taking the match-winning wicket of Jasprit Bumrah in the second.
After missing the second Test, Archer bowled just the five overs in the third Test where he took 1-24.
Archer said that there was a difference between bowling in the five-day version of the game and T20, where slower balls, not requiring as much effort and therefore being as strenuous, could allow a bowler to play through niggles.
England T20 captain Eoin Morgan said on match eve he was hoping Archer would be fit for the entire series, which gets underway in Ahmedabad on Saturday morning (12:30am AEDT).
“I’m hopeful he’s fit for the whole of the series,” Morgan said. “If the game was [today] he’d be fit. We’ve got training to come through but hopefully he’s good coming out of that.”