England given major boost with Jofra Archer 'on course' for World Cup defence
England's defence of their 50-over World Cup trophy has been given a major boost after it was revealed that star quick Jofra Archer is "on course" to be fit for the tournament.
England won the World Cup on home soil back in 2019 in dramatic fashion, with Archer bowling the all-important Super Over. He then went on to star in the Ashes that same summer, but his career has been stalled by a series of injury problems since then.
Archers has been forced to undergo multiple elbow operations in recent years and was ruled out of the ongoing Ashes series after suffering a stress fracture in the same right elbow. The 28-year-old returned to action for England earlier this year on white-ball tours of South Africa and Bangladesh, but has not played a Test since February 2021.
However, England remain hopeful he will be able to put his injury woes behind him and Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace has delivered a promising update as Archer continues to recover from his latest setback, with the World Cup due to get underway in October. "He is going well," Farbrace told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"I think he is on course for the World Cup, which is fantastic news. He is going nicely. I think England will need to work out how to get the best out of him over the next few years if he is to go to that next Ashes series."
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England's managing director Rob Key is optimistic about Archer's future and has repeatedly played down concerns the fast bowler may be forced to give up Test cricket. "I'm sure we'll see him back at some point," Key said in May.
"I've seen people like Pat Cummins miss a lot of cricket at the early stage of his career and now Australia are starting to see the benefit. He's been able to put season after season together. You just hope that down the line Jofra will overcome this and that his body will get robust enough to deal with the rigours of everything.
Archer is currently out of action with a recurring elbow injury (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)"At the moment all cricket's been too much for his body to cope with and we need to get past that. He's desperate to play Test cricket and I hope he gets the chance to do that. It's quite a unique situation and has baffled a few of the specialists who have been involved from the start.
"I think when something like this happens you look at every single thing. You look at the whole thing we've had in place right from before Christmas when we had everything mapped out for how we wanted him to get back to getting ready to play in the Ashes and then the World Cup.
"We are going to look at every single thing we've done. Everything we've done has been what we thought was the right thing for the player first, not actually for anyone else. We've tried to work out what's the best way for him to be able to have the best career he can possibly have and that's not worked out, so we will look at every single thing."
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