Jofra Archer replacement: Who has replaced the English pacer in Old Trafford Test?

Jofra Archer replacement: England have made as many as four changes to their Playing XI from the Southampton Test.

During the first day of the second Test of the ongoing West Indies’ tour of England in Manchester, West Indies captain Jason Holder has won the toss and opted to field to surprise one and all.

With the Old Trafford known for its first-innings score, it was expected that whoever wins the toss would have made optimum use of the surface by batting first in the first innings.

While the initial weather forecast hadn’t predicted rain on Day 1, toss got delayed by more than an hour as weather played spoilsport for yet another time in the series. It seems it was the overcast climate which made Holder opt to field first.

WI are the first team to put the opposition into bat in a Test at Old Trafford since 1993 according to @ZaltzCricket

— Simon Mann (@Cricket_Mann) July 16, 2020

“We’re going to field first. Try to make use of the overhead conditions. Whatever it is under the surface, we’ll try to extract it in the first session. The bowlers have pulled up quite well, expect similar things in this game,” Holder was quoted as saying during the toss.

As expected, West Indies have persisted with their winning combination which means that the same team will be playing the second match.

Jofra Archer replacement

As far as the hosts are concerned, they had no option left than to put on display a whole different fast bowling division especially after fast bowler Jofra Archer was ruled out of this match after breaching biosecurity protocol.

With captain Joe Root requiring to leave one out Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran and Ollie Robinson, he has decided pick experience over potential as 26-year old uncapped Robinson will continue to wait for his Test debut.

In the last decade, there have been 11 instances of an away side winning the toss in ENG & opting to bowl. None of them resulted in victory.

The last away side in ENG to win the toss, bowl & win the Test, was South Africa at Leeds in 2008 – the Darren Pattinson match. #ENGvWI

— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) July 16, 2020

“We have to look ahead to the next five days and put up a good performance. We spoke to Mark [Wood] and Jimmy [James Anderson] and knew it’s a high risk to play them in back to back games.

“It is a must win for us, but we need to look after them as well. We can take 20 wickets and we’re looking forward to that. We have [Stuart] Broad, [Chris] Woakes, [Sam] Curran and [Dominic] Bess in the bowling,” Root said during the toss.

Sam Curran, a handy option with the bat, is said to have replaced Archer at Old Trafford. Talking about other changes, Root, Chris Wokaes and Stuart Broad have replaced the likes of Joe Denly, Mark Wood and James Anderson.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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