Kevin Pietersen takes a dig at Mark Wood, urges England to play Jofra Archer instead

After winning one match each, England and South Africa are all set to face each other in the third Test of the four-match series at the St George’s Oval in Port Elizabeth from Thursday.

Meanwhile, the visitors have been hit heavily by players’ illness and injury which have led them to alter their preferred playing eleven. On many occasions, English players were also seen taking breaks in the middle of the game to receive treatment for their illness.

One such injury issue emerged when Jofra Archer suffered a sore elbow in the first Test and was forced to sit out for the following game. The Barbados-born pacer seemed to be in good touch in the series opener in Centurion where he had picked up a total of six wickets.

Kevin Pietersen takes dig at England cricket team and Mark Wood

Also, England’s premier pacer James Anderson has been ruled out of the remaining matches of the series. It has been reported that Mark Wood might replace him and make his return in red-ball cricket as Archer is believed to have not gained his fitness completely, though nothing is confirmed as of now.

“Mark’s ready to come in and do a job. You need those types of bowlers, especially on surfaces at Port Elizabeth where you might need a touch of X Factor; a 90mph-plus bowler that can get the batsmen jumping around,” England assistant coach Paul Collingwood was quoted as saying by BBC.

At a time when the speculations are going rife if Wood will make his Test return or it will be Archer who will replace Anderson, former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen urged the English team management to go for the latter. Taking a dig at the management, Pietersen tweeted, “England would be STUPID to not play Jofra in PE if he’s fit! I’d rather face Wood, ALL DAY LONG!”

South Africa had won the opening match by 107 runs at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. A collective effort had seen the Proteas register their first Test victory in over a year. However, the Three Lions were up to the task in the second match as they won it by 189 runs in Cape Town, courtesy of a brilliant spell by Ben Stokes in the fourth innings.

(Written by Niladry Sarkar)