Jofra Archer ruled out of the second Test against India

England’s right-arm fast bowler Jofra Archer has been ruled out of the second Test of the four-match series against India, which will run from February 13 to February 17, 2021 at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Archer has sustained an elbow injury and for the same reason didn’t attend England’s training season on Thursday, February 11 as the team returned to practice after scripting a stunning victory in the first Test by a massive 227 runs.

Also, the injury suffered by the right-arm seamer is not related to the stress fracture of the elbow that had ruled him out of the first Test of a two-month tour of South Africa last winter and is being treated as a ‘niggle’. While the severity of the arm injury suffered by Jofra Archer is still unknown, it is learned that the England team doesn’t want to take any risk with their speed merchant as they want him to be completely fit for the pink-ball Test, scheduled between England and India from February 24 to February 28 at Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad.

The pitch of Ahmedabad is known to favor the pacers and thus the visitors will expect the presence of all their three mainstays including James Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Archer.

Joe Root to work out other plans to rotate the fast bowlers

Archer being unavailable for the second Test also hampers the policy of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) regarding the regulation of the players. It was speculated that Anderson, who had produced a match-defining spell in the fourth innings of the first Test by scalping three important wickets of Rishabh Pant, Ajinkya Rahane, and Shubman Gill, will be rested while Stuart Broad will be included in the playing XI.

However, skipper Joe Root and England coach Chris Silverwood will now have to work out different combinations to smoothly rotate the players after Archer being injured.

Jofra Archer had last featured in the first Test against India and had a moderate run in both innings. In the first innings, he scalped two wickets of Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma while in the second innings he managed to pick only one wicket in the form of Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah.