(Cricket News) Jofra Archer has not played professional cricket since May 2023, when he suffered a recurrence of an elbow stress fracture while playing for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. He briefly travelled to the World Cup in India as a reserve but experienced more elbow pain while training in Mumbai and spent less than a week in the country.

Archer will not play in the 2024 IPL at all as the ECB looks to take control of his workload in the lead-up to next year’s T20 World Cup.

34 players from England are among the more than 1000 names that have registered for the IPL auction, which is scheduled to take place in Dubai on December 19. Archer recently inked a two-year contract as an England central player, which runs from October 2023 to September 2025. According to various sources, the ECB advised Archer not to participate in the auction.

The managing director of England men’s cricket, Rob Key, has made it clear time and again that England should cooperate with franchise leagues rather than oppose them.

However, the ECB feels that managing Archer’s return will be simpler if he is in the UK in April and May under its supervision rather than if he is in India with an IPL team trying to get the most out of him.

The ECB has chosen to exert as much control over Archer as possible as he attempts a comeback. Earlier this year, Archer left India a week into the IPL to see an elbow specialist in Belgium, and after feeling pain on his Mumbai Indians debut, he had a minor operation.

He returned to play four more games before returning home, when England’s medical staff diagnosed him with a recurrence of a stress fracture. Key said at the time that England would review “every single thing we have done” in Archer’s rehab, having mapped out a detailed recovery program in conjunction with the Mumbai Indians’ medical staff, which included appearances for MI Cape Town in the SA20.

“We take that bet with him that we want him back fit and able to play for England, because of the upside,” Key stated last month. “You start looking at things like the Ashes in two years, the T20 World Cup… Jofra adds so much to that.” At this point, England is hopeful that Archer could be a part of their squad for the T20 World Cup in June 2024 and are making preparations accordingly.

England will play four Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) at home against Pakistan from May 22 to 30, and Archer may play in the 2nd XI county T20 competition, which begins in mid-May, if he needs to demonstrate his fitness. The only first-team cricket that he will have access to in the first two months of the English season will be in the County Championship, as the T20 Blast does not begin until May 30.

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