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Jofra Archer’s recuperation from a stress fracture was
hindered by elbow pain he felt during England’s World Cup training in Mumbai.
As a result, he will not be able to participate in their next white-ball tour
of the Caribbean next month.
Archer has not participated in any competitive cricket
since the Indian Premier League, when he sustained a relapsed elbow stress
fracture while playing for the Mumbai Indians. He returned to action in January
following an 18-month absence due to elbow and back problems, and he played in
four ODIs and three T20Is during England’s tours of Bangladesh and South
Africa.
In the hopes that he would be well enough to play in
the second half of the group stage, England originally wanted to have Archer in
their World Cup roster. However, the ECB’s medical assessments indicated that
his playing as a reserve was the “best-case scenario” when it came to
choosing a provisional team in mid-August.
However, Archer was returning home on an aircraft
following two brief training sessions at Wankhede Stadium. In a weird turn of
events, Reece Topley broke his finger and was ruled out of the tournament;
nonetheless, England chose to call up Brydon Carse instead of including their
travelling reserve in the team.
“Originally, the thought was that he was going to
be alright for the back end of the competition,” Rob Key, England’s
managing director, said on Sunday, after England’s league-stage elimination was
confirmed. “It was a risk worth taking. He had his scans, and they all
came up clear.
“He flies over here, comes out to Mumbai, bowls,
and actually then he felt pain in his elbow. So then, the view was, ‘right,
this is going to be a risk too far’. Because of the upside, that’s what lures
you in. You start looking at things like the Ashes in two years, the T20 World
Cup… Jofra adds so much to that.
“You don’t want to risk rushing something to see
that kibosh the rest of his career. So we then said, ‘right, fine, this isn’t
the right way to go. Rather than just keep him hanging around and not really
doing anything, let’s send him back home and get in Brydon Carse who had been
preparing.'”