Jofra Archer to miss Test match versus India after stress fracture rules him out of English summer

By PTI

LONDON: England pace spearhead Jofra Archer has been ruled out of the entire season due to a stress fracture on his lower back, the country’s cricket board said on Thursday, which means he will miss the Test against India in July.

“After being diagnosed with a stress fracture to the lower back, England and Sussex seamer Jofra Archer has been ruled out for the rest of the season,” the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement.

The worst part is that he is indefinitely out of competitive cricket as the ECB has not set any specific time-frame for his return. “No time-frame has been set for his return. A management plan will be determined following further specialist opinion over the coming days,” he said.

India are scheduled to play a Test match (carry over from previous series) along with six white-ball games in the month of July.

The 27-year-old Jofra, who last played international cricket in March 2021 in an away series against India, had undergone an elbow surgery and then made a comeback to county cricket for Sussex before suffering a stress fracture.

The last competitive match that he played was a T20 game against Kent at Hove. The Barbados-born Jofra has so far played 42 international matches for England across three formats and has 86 wickets to his credit.