sport news Jofra Archer insists 'there's no reason to look back' as he reaches speeds of ... trends now
Jofra Archer suffered an untimely break in the Mangaung Oval nets on Wednesday, while preparing to end a near two-year absence from international cricket.
Thankfully on this occasion, the damage was to his bat and not his body, and he continued his practice after loaning a replacement from England team-mate Adil Rashid.
A catalogue of injury woes has kept Archer, 27, out of the top-level environment for 22 months but pleasingly he has shown glimpses of his special fast-bowling talent, producing speeds approaching 90 miles per hour once more at the SA20 in recent weeks and wants to use the upcoming one-day series versus South Africa, starting on Friday, as a catalyst for replicating his very best.
Jofra Archer insisted there is 'no reason to look back' after nearly two years on the sidelines
As he addressed the year ahead, he spoke confidently of matching his feats of his debut summer of 2019 when he helped England become world champions and terrorised Australia’s batting.
'Hopefully it can be a repeat of 2019. We've got again a 50-over World Cup and an Ashes in the same year so more of the same, please,’ Archer said.
‘It's just been good to play cricket and actually not have to worry about if my body's going to give way. I think that was the most important tick for me so far.
‘There's no reason to look back. I've done my time and I'm here now. That's the most important thing. I'd probably say I'm about 80 per cent. I know whenever I'm fully fit, I don't think there's much that can stop me, it was just a matter of when that was going to be.’
The bowler showed glimpses of his former pace and racked up speeds of 90mph in the nets
The Sussex fast bowler has been through almost constant rehab since his last international appearance - a T20 versus India in Ahmedabad in March 2021. First came an elbow injury that took two surgeries to fix; then, cruelly, on the
