Jofra Archer, Who Earns INR 8 Crore Per Season With Mumbai Indians, Was Slammed By Sunil Gavaskar For Leaving IPL 2023 Midway

England fast bowler Jofra Archer has been struggling because of an injury for a long time now. It was due to the same reason that he hasn’t played a lot of representative cricket including the Indian Premier League in the recent years.

Although he represented Mumbai Indians in five IPL 2023 matches, he had to fly back to England after the recurrence of a long-standing elbow injury. Not known for mincing words, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar had written a column for Mid Day where he smoked Archer for his attitude.

When Mumbai had signed Archer, everyone was excited beyond limits in anticipation of Archer and his Indian counterpart Jasprit Bumrah playing for the same team. However, both of them have not played a single game across two seasons till now. Respective injuries to both the express pacers haven’t allowed the franchise to reap fruits of a bold strategic decision.

Jofra Archer Was Slammed By Sunil Gavaskar For Leaving IPL 2023 Midway

Having missed the 14th and 15th seasons of the IPL, Archer was back earlier this year amid a plethora of hopes. In his first match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, he was nowhere near his best registering bowling figures of 4-0-33-0. Archer’s subsequent outings weren’t fruitful either as struggles with rhythm were evident every single time.

The right-arm bowler’s continual absence was followed by reports of him traveling abroad to see a specialist doctor. After a few days, it was announced that Archer would return back to England in order to continue rehabilitation under the watchful eyes of the ECB (England & Wales Cricket Board). Fellow England pacer Chris Jordan was announced as his replacement at MI.

Writing for Mid Day, Gavaskar was not at all happy about Archer’s attitude. He believed that the pacer should have stayed with the franchise even after getting injured. Gavaskar was so furious that he asked the franchise to not pay Archer his entire contract amount as they haven’t got anything in return.

“There’s simply no point paying even one rupee for a player, however big a name he may be, if he is not going to be available for the entire tournament.”

“What has been Mumbai Indians’ experience of Jofra Archer? They took a punt on him knowing that he was injured and would be available only from this season. They paid big money for him and what has he given in return? He didn’t seem 100 percent fit and he should have informed the franchise about it.”

Archer, who picked just a couple of wickets at an economy rate of 9.50 in the 16th season of the IPL, has not played a single competitive match since then. Still recovering from the same, he will be a travelling reserve for England during ICC Cricket World Cup beginning next month in India.

Jofra Archer Was Sold For INR 8 Crore In IPL 2022 Auction

Archer, who made made his IPL debut in 2018, was first bought by Rajasthan Royals for a price of INR 7.20 crore. Released ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction, Archer still registered his name for the auction in spite of knowing about his non-participation.

An elbow surgery, however, didn’t hamper his prospects of finding a buyer as there was a significant amount of interest shown in him on the bidding day. Even Royals tried their best to get him back by giving tough competition to Indians but chose to step out of the race after the bid reached INR 6.50 crore. With Sunrisers Hyderabad joining the race, even they couldn’t stop an adamant MI from buying Archer.

Eventually sold for INR 8 crore, Archer has been earning money despite playing a handful of matches. With Archer also representing MI New York in SA20 2023, it will be interesting to see how long the franchise keeps faith in him in the biggest T20 competition around the globe.