Jofra Archer will make a comeback into England’s Test team after a gap of four years at Lord’s on Thursday.England have announced their playing XI for the third Test match. Archer will replace Joshua Tongue in the XI.After playing one first-class match for Sussex, where he bowled 18 overs, Archer was included in England’s Test team.
Archer took 42 wickets at an average of 31.04 in the 13 Tests he played between 2019 and 2021, before persistent elbow and back injuries kept him out of action for 18 months.Former captain Michael Vaughan has warned England not to expect too much from Jofra Archer.“I can understand, I have a real concern about Jofra playing next week, I really do. I can’t see how his body is going to be able to cope with a five-day match on the back of that one day in the field. But I can understand why England are wrapping him in cotton wool because he is that X-Factor and he has got that ability,” Vaughan said on BBC Test Match Special.“We all go back to that spell that he bowled to Steve Smith at Lord’s. It was just up there with the great, great spells in Test match cricket. But after that spell, what has Jofra done in Test match cricket? So we are kind of looking at Jofra as if he is the saviour to everything. We have got to be very, very careful with the player and the human being that we don’t expect too much too soon.”Gus Atkinson, who was added to the squad after the Edgbaston Test, didn’t make the cut.Mark Wood also trained with England at Lord’s on Wednesday morning as he targets a return from his knee injury for the fifth Test.England XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Shoaib Bashir.
