Jofra Archer returned to cricket after an 18-month injury lay-off with a 3-27 bowling performance for MI Cape Town in the South Africa T20 League.
The all format bowler last played in 2021 but has slowly been returning returning to fitness, including bowling for the England Lions in Pakistan in November.
Archer stormed into international cricket before his injury, most notably his performances in the 2019 Ashes series but has only played in two tests since then.
International teammates Sam Curran and Olly Stone were also part of the Mumbai team that cruised to an eight wicket win over the Paarl Pearls who posted 142-7 including 51 from world cup winning captain Jos Buttler.
Other England internationals were Jason Roy, who struggled once more, and Buttler’s predecessor Eoin Morgan.
This is the first edition of the South Africa franchise league and it has had success in attracting the games biggest names with English Australian and Asian players all joining it.
The news that Curran, Stone and Archer took five wickets between them will be good news with the Ashes and ODI World Cup coming up later in the year.
New England men’s elite bowling coach Neil Killeen will also be keen to see more of Archer in particular as he looks to build the fitness up to ensure archer can play as much cricket as possible this year.
MICT captain Rashid Khan was happy to see Archer back on a cricket pitch:
“It’s super hard after having that long, long gap and then coming back, and that kind of comeback was absolutely delightful to watch.”
Khan also said. “We saw him in practice and the way he was bowling it was like: ‘He’s ready to go.’ It was super great to watch him – he is fully ready and it’s great that he’s back.”
England test captain Ben Stokes took to twitter also to show how happy he was that Jofra was back in action.
He will likely play a part of his plans in the Ashes if fit due to his X-Factor but with competition so high in the bowling attack and with England guaranteed to play Jack Leach they may chop and change in attack.
Olly Stone also getting a run injury-free could see him get a chance, with his last being in 2021 vs New Zealand.
