Jofra Archer is ramping up his return to international cricket and he made sure Zak Crawley knew about it. The paceman has not featured for England since March 2021 and has been without competitive cricket since July 2021 having battled an elbow injury and then suffering a stress fracture of his lower back, which ruled him out of the 2022 summer.
It has been a nightmare run of injuries for the 2019 world champion, but he now looks to be on the verge of stepping back into the international fold. Featuring for the Lions in a warm-up match at the Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi today, Archer produced an initial five-over spell with figures of 5-1-23-0.
While not at his best or his quickest, which is understandable given the length of time he has spent on the sidelines, he still gave the batters plenty to worry about. Crawley, one of the opening batsmen, was struck on the head by a bouncer at the end of the first over of the match, which led to a pause in play for a concussion test.
