England spin bowling coach Jeetan Patel has provided a massive fitness update on speedsters Jofra Archer and Gus Atkinson after the end of Day 2 of the Birmingham Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 against India at Edgbaston.
After the end of Day 2 play, England were 77/3, with Joe Root (18*) and Harry Brook (30*) unbeaten in reply to India's total of 587.
The former New Zealand spinner also opened up on pacer Brydon Carse's performance in the first innings of the game, who managed to get just one wicket his his 24-over spell, where he conceded 83 runs and bowled three maidens.
"Carse had two hard test matches, and fortunately, we've had a good break between the first and second Test, but it's the beauty of having a battery of seamers," he said in the post-day press conference.
Further, Patel confirmed that Archer and Atkinson are fully fit and they can be available for the coming matches of the series.
"We've got some guys coming back into the squad. Namely, Joff bowled rockets at lunch today again, and Gus may be back at full fitness, and then you can start to rotate," he added.
Archer was included in England's squad for the second Test match but he was not included in the playing XI as the Ben Stokes-led side announced an unchanged playing XI for the second Test. Archer is made his comeback in red-ball cricket after a long gap of four years. Earlier this week, he featured for Sussex in their four-day match against Durham at Chester-Le-Street and showed glimpses of his best as he scored 31 with the bat and collected figures of 1/32 from 18 overs as the teams played out a draw.
Making his return to the side ahead of the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, Archer has played plenty of ODIs and T20Is for England but is short of Test Match experience.
Coming back to the 2nd Test, In reply to India's mammoth 587, England faced early blows and Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj made early inroads. The duo bowled in tandem and removed Ben Duckett (0), Ollie Pope (0) and Zak Crawley (19) within the blink of an eye. Joe Root and Harry Brook stitched a comeback by raising an unbeaten 52-run stand to propel England to 77/3 at the end of a pulsating day.