Why is Jofra Archer Not Playing Today’s IPL 2023 Match Between Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians at the Narendra Modi Stadium?

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has won the toss and chose to bowl in the 35th match of the ongoing 16th season of the Indian Premier League at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

“We are gonna bowl first. We saw the pitch, it was hard. They put a lot of water there. Want to make best use of the conditions,” Sharma told host broadcaster Star Sports Network at the toss.

Not affected much by the toss in the general run of things, Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya agreed with his counterpart with respect to the water content on the pitch. “It [pitch] looks good. Looks watery. It has been a belter though,” Pandya told Star Sports.

Why is Jofra Archer Not Playing Today vs Gujarat Titans?

It is noteworthy that Indians’ have made a total of three changes to their Playing XI for this match. Batter Tilak Varma, spinner Hrithik Shokeen and fast bowler Jofra Archer aren’t playing tonight to be replaced by spinner Kumar Kartikeya and fast bowlers Jason Behrendorff and Riley Meredith.

“Hrithik Shokeen misses out from the last game. Kumar Kartikeya is going to play. Jofra [Archer] is not well. Riley Meredith is back,” Sharma mentioned.

While Sharma didn’t talk about Archer’s illness in detail, it is worth mentioning that the Englishman isn’t missing an IPL 2023 match for the first time. In fact, the right-arm bowler has played only two out of MI’s first seven matches of the season. Varma, meanwhile, is almost certain of participating as an Impact Player in the second innings.

In his two outings, Archer dismissed a solitary batter in the eight overs that he’s bowled this season. Meredith, on the contrary, has picked five wickets at an average of 21.40, an economy rate of 9.17 and a strike rate of 14 across three matches.

As far as Titans are concerned, the hosts haven’t made any change to their Playing XI. Having lost their last two home matches, the defending champions would be keen to avoid a third consecutive defeat in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.