England Test captain Ben Stokes is not worried about Jofra Archer's repeated injury woes, pointing out that the tearaway pacer is ready for the rigours of Test cricket after being named in England's Playing XI for the third Test against India. Jofra returns to the format after more than four years of absence from the format, with his last Test coming in February 2021.
Archer played a First-Class game for Sussex before returning to Test cricket. "It's this default of going to the worst. We are a very good nation at doing that. I see it as, Jofra has played a lot of cricket over the last two and a half years since he's been back. He's played white ball cricket for England, and got through a first-class game for Sussex and felt really good," said Stokes ahead of the Lord's Test.
"Got his loads up last week, and if we didn't think he was in a position to get through a first-class game as a bowler, we wouldn't have considered him for selection. If we did not think he was ready, or in a position to be selected, he would not be selected.
"Whenever you take the field, you are always putting yourself at risk. It's a professional sport, it's a very physical sport. We all know potentially stuff could go wrong, but we would not select someone if we didn't think they could get through I," said Stokes in defense of Archer.
Stokes expects the Lord's pitch to offer something on day one. "Lord's generally plays the same way. There's always a bit in it on day one to two, then if anything, it tends to speed up as the game goes longer.
Watched a bit of the WTC final and it was the same then," said Stokes.
The England captain was asked about his thoughts on South Africa's stand-in captain letting go of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break Brian Lara's 400* record. "As captain, you'd rather do it to yourself than the captain pulling out on a groundbreaking day. Fair play to him. I think he said something about how it should stay with Brian. He's not going to get that opportunity again (laughs)! Fair play to them."
