“We said this time that he didn’t want to play IPL,” Rob Key says in a major update about Jofra Archer

Jofra Archer’s comeback for the T20 World Cup later this year is something that England is looking for. The fast bowler hasn’t played professional cricket since May of last year and is presently recovering from a recurrence of a chronic elbow problem. While the England white-ball squad was touring the Caribbean in December, he did practice with them.

Rob Key, England’s director of cricket, is optimistic that Archer will make a comeback for the major tournament in the Caribbean since the English Cricket Board is gradually “building him up” for it.

According to Key, “our plan is the T20 World Cup, building him up slowly,” the BBC’s “Tailenders Podcast” said.

“It seemed as if he had never left when I saw him bowl in the Caribbean. I do not like to return to this situation where he performs and then collapses once again. Although we told him not to this time, Archer still wanted to participate in the IPL. Hopefully, he can extend his career by the years he has missed. Key said, “He is such a genius.

For the last three years, Archer has suffered from injuries often. In the first quarter of 2023, he returned to white-ball cricket, participating in three Twenty20 Internationals and four One-Day Internationals. But during the IPL last year, he had a recurrence of his right-arm elbow ailment, which kept him out of play once again.

Without the England management knowing, Archer did play for his old school team when England played the West Indies in Barbados at the conclusion of the previous year. He was also declared ineligible for the IPL this season, and the Mumbai Indians, his team, waived him accordingly. Despite managing an elbow ailment, he seemed subpar in the few games he played as a member of the Mumbai Indians side in the most recent Indian Premier League.

Archer also took a brief journey to Belgium for a minor operation during his IPL tenure.