Jofra Archer lambasted Michael Vaughan after latter questioned his commitment to Test Cricket post poor returns during tour of India.
Advertisement
English speedster Jofra Archer had burst onto the international scene in quite some style by bagging as many as 22 wickets in his maiden Test series versus Australia in 2019.
Being able to consistently bowl at around the 145 km/h mark has been the hallmark of the 26-year-old’s career so far. But with promise comes weight of expectations, which can thus lead to unwarranted criticisms at times when performances cease to be consistent even for a short while.
Just two years young into his Test career, Archer had to face something similar from England’s former skipper Michael Vaughan.
Post a rather modest tour of India in 2020/21, where the tall fast bowler could pick up mere 4 wickets across two Tests, Vaughan indirectly questioned Archer’s commitment to Test Cricket, and went on to suggest the ECB to find out the reason why that was the case.
Jofra Archer lambasted Michael Vaughan
The Barbados-born pacer, clearly unamused by Vaughan’s supposedly undue criticism of him, expressed his anger and disappointment on the same.
Archer went on to state that he had never had a conversation with Vaughan on Cricket, and that he (Vaughan) doesn’t even know what drives him and motivates him to play the game.
“Comments like ‘he’s not committed’ or ‘he’s not good enough’ appear as soon as you are not 110 per cent. I find it quite annoying how people read into stuff and form their own opinions. I saw an article from Michael Vaughan in which he said, ‘if Jofra doesn’t love Test cricket, England needs to find out why.’ We’ve never had a conversation about cricket, so I found it a bit odd. He doesn’t know what makes me tick. He doesn’t know what’s driving me,” remarked Jofra Archer.
England, post winning the first Test match with a stamp of authority, went on to lose the remaining Tests to lose the series 1-3. Archer had suffered an elbow injury during the tour, which would require him to go through a couple of surgeries. With the recovery process still on course, Archer is yet to make a comeback to the England side.
