England advised to save Joffra Archer for Eng vs. IND 3RD Test

Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace has advised England to not include Jofra Archer in their playing XI for the ENG vs IND 2nd Test at Edgbaston. Ben Stokes and co. clinched a 5-wicket victory against India in the Leeds Test to go 1-0 up in the series. Ahead of the 2nd Test, Farbrace has warned England against making any changes to their playing XI.

Save Archer for 3rd Test: Farbrace

As per The Guardian, Farbrace said that England should stick to Chris Woakes for the 2nd Test as he knew Edgbaston inside out. He said that England ought to be careful about Archer since he had only recently returned to red-ball cricket and had bowled just 18 overs.

“I would be definitely sticking with Chris Woakes for Edgbaston because he knows the pitch inside out. Why change the team? They’ve just won the Test at Headingley. They’ve set themselves up nicely for the series. If I was in their situation, my honest answer would be that I would save him for the third Test match. You have to be careful that he’s only bowled 18 overs of red-ball cricket,” the former England assistant coach said.

Archer made his comeback to red-ball cricket recently after a gap of over 1500 days. On his return to County cricket, he bowled a short spell of four overs to start with. To everyone’s delight, he bowled well to trouble both Durham batters Alex Lees and Emilio Gay. 

“The whole point of this was that he got some red-ball overs. He bowled with good pace, he bowled with good accuracy, his body is in good shape, which is fantastic. We’d all love to see Jofra playing for England, because England having Jofra available makes England a much better team, and gives us a much better chance of winning the big series. So let’s look after him and be careful with him,” Farbrace added.

Prior to the game against Durham, Archer had last played red-ball cricket in 2021.