England tearaway Jofra Archer eased his way into action following his elbow strain and the bemusing fish tank mishap which left a shard of glass embedded in his right middle finger.
While the Barbadian announced his arrival with a 46-ball 35 batting for Sussex reserves against Surrey in the 2nd XI County Championship clash at Hove, his exploits with the ball were rather subdued. Understandably so, as it was more about putting the body through the paces after a forced hiatus due to an elbow injury that ruled him out of the ODI series against India and the entire IPL.
Archer returned insipid figures of 0 for 32 in 11 overs, spread across two spells of six and five overs, respectively, as he went about his business with muted intensity.
However, the stars didn’t align for Archer as well. Third slip made a meal of a sharp chance as Archer jammed the splice of Ryan Patel with one of his nastier deliveries of the day, leading to a fruitless toil for the English firebrand.
Archer's fragile bowling elbow has been a cause of concern in his international career. The speedster missed three Tests of England's tour of South Africa in early 2020 and the subsequent T20 series owing to that issue. He did feature in the first and third Tests against India, but had to sit out of the second and fourth as the elbow niggle reared its ugly head.
England are keen on having their pace spearhead back into the fold as soon as possible given the Test against New Zealand at Lord's is now just under a month away.
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