Jofra Archer reinstated to the list in the IPL auction after his name was absent in the list sent to the franchises.
Jofra Archer has been added back to the final auction list days after his name did not feature in shortlist sent by IPL
Three days before the two-day mega auction in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah begins on November 24. Archer’s inclusion was unofficially confirmed to franchises on Thursday.
The franchises will be curious to see the set that includes Archer. Even though the IPL has not yet made the news public. Archer was one of the prominent players left off of the 574-player shortlist that the IPL provided to teams. Along with his England teammate Mark Wood. Given that both England quicks were on the original IPL longlist, their omission raised questions. Archer had specified INR 2 crore as the highest base price.
He will now be included in the first set of fast bowlers (Set 6). This will be put up for auction on the first day and currently consists of seven quicks.
This week, Archer and his representatives have been in talks with the BCCI and the ECB to get an explanation of what would happen if he wasn’t selected for the shortlist. The ECB has some influence over Archer’s workload because of his central contract, which is valid until the end of September.
Although Archer hasn’t participated in Test cricket since early 2021, England is still holding out hope that he will when they play Australia away and India at home in 2021.
“Everything is going exactly to plan for Jofra,” managing director Rob Key told the Sunday Times last week. “Can he play Tests next summer? With all my fingers crossed, yes.”
Archer’s chances of playing for Sussex in the early going of the County Championship season would be severely hampered by spending April and May in the IPL. In order to prevent Archer from recovering from his injury too quickly. ECB prevented him from bidding in last year’s auction. However, if they had done so this year. He would not have been allowed to participate in the tournament until at least 2027.
Even though Archer had recently had elbow surgery and was unable to play that season, the Mumbai Indians paid INR 8 crore (about USD 1.06 million at the time) for him in the 2022 mega-auction. He took two wickets in five games for MI in 2023 before another elbow injury ended his season too soon.
After taking 20 wickets for the Rajasthan Royals in the 2020 IPL. Which was played in the United Arab Emirates, Archer was voted MVP of his most recent complete season. Throughout his IPL career, he has made 40 appearances and claimed 48 wickets.