England’s express pacer Jofra Archer will travel with Jos Buttler-led ODI squad for World Cup 2023 in India. Archer who has been ruled out of action since his elbow injury during Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, will be completing his rehabilitation while England continue their title defense.
England's chief selector Luke Wright is hopeful of Archer regaining full fitness. Considering it is a long tournament, Archer can walk into the squad if a player gets injured.
"The best thing for Jofra is to travel with the team and keep working with his rehab and being around the physios and the team. We are doing all we can to get him ready to be as good as he can be. If there was an injury he might be able to replace at the back end of the tournament but obviously we are still working on his fitness day-by-day and we'll have to keep accessing that," Wright said in a statement.
The announcement came a day after the England Cricket Board (ECB) announced the 15-member squad. There was only one major change in the squad as 24-year-old Harry Brook replaced veteran opener Jason Roy as the latter suffered back spasms during the home series against New Zealand.
The last time Archer played an ODI was against Bangladesh in March 2023. He picked up three wickets in a losing cause. So far, Archer has 42 wickets from 21 games including a six-wicket haul. Also, his economy rate is an impressive 4.80 runs per over.
England will begin their title defense against New Zealand on October 5 at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. They are high on spirits after beating New Zealand 3-1 in the recently concluded four-ODI series. Also, Ben Stokes who made his return to the ODI setup after taking a U-turn on retirement smashed a record-breaking 182 in the series.
England World Cup squad: Jos Buttler (captain), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
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