Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen has given his verdict on his country’s pace-bowling star Jofra Archer, stating that the player may not be able to play long-form cricket again due to another injury setback.
Archer was ruled out of the 2022 English summer on Thursday after sustaining a stress fracture in his lower back. The 27-year-old, who last played for England in March 2021, was aiming to return for Sussex in the T20 Blast next week after a long-term elbow injury.
Kevin Pietersen on Jofra Archer
Archer had intended to play some warm-up games before Sussex’s first match against Glamorgan, but he has already been ruled out. Despite not being available for the current season owing to an elbow injury, Archer was purchased for INR 8 crore by the five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction.
“It’s terrible news for poor Jofra Archer that he’ll miss the whole summer. He’s shown moments of brilliance for England and other teams and it’s just a horrible blow for him. It’s difficult to imagine him recovering from this to play long-form cricket again, that’s the horrible reality. Hopefully, he can still carve out a top-level white-ball career,” said Kevin Pietersen.
“His stress fracture to the back follows a pattern of these injuries being sustained by England bowlers. I do think that the number of sports scientists can complicate things far too much. When I was playing, fast bowlers used to bowl a lot of overs in the nets and got bowling fit,” he added.
Pietersen thought it was weird that today’s young fast bowlers were injuring themselves on a frequent basis, but legends like Curtly Ambrose, Shaun Pollock, and Glenn McGrath, who put in the effort, had long and brilliant careers.
When it comes to Archer’s Test statistics, the right-arm bowler has appeared in 13 games and taken 42 wickets. Archer has also taken three five-wicket hauls.
