England head coach Brendon McCullum has defended Jofra Archer despite the fast bowler’s minimal impact with the ball in the first two Tests of the ongoing Ashes series.
Archer has picked up just three wickets across two Tests at an average of 57. The England pace spearhead has not been able to crank up high speeds on a regular basis. In the last game, Australia stand-in captain Steve Smith had a verbal exchange with a fiery Archer when the hosts were chasing just 65 runs. Smith asked the England pacer why he had not bowled at express pace earlier in the game. McCullum defended the approach of his tearaway quick.
“Jofra is good,” McCullum said. “He can say what he wants, but if you mope around bowling at 75 miles an hour in that last innings, then the narrative would be very different right at the end.”
Given the nature of the format and the workload in the five-match series, McCullum said that even for someone like Archer, it is impossible to bowl at 150 km/h consistently.
“The skipper asked our boys not to mope around and not to feel sorry for themselves. We haven’t been outplayed in this game, but we had an opportunity with 60-odd runs to defend to fire some bullets and see where we landed. I have no problem with him stepping up to that level. It is impossible to bowl at 150 every single time here,” he added.
In the absence of Wood, there will be extra pressure on Archer to lead an inexperienced England bowling attack as the visitors look to fight back after going 2–0 down in the series.
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