All eyes are on Jofra Archer, reveals Eoin Morgan
Eoin Morgan revealed that all eyes will be on Rajasthan Royalsâ Jofra Archer who could be offered a chance to make his senior debut for the three lions during the bilateral series against Pakistan. The five-match ODI series between the two nations will be played in England from May 8 to 19.
Jofra Archer has previously represented the West Indies U-19 Cricket team in the past but had made his intentions to play for the England senior team a priority once he turned 18. Archer has an English father and British passport but was not eligible to play for England until the winter of 2022. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) rules stated that as he did not live in England until after his 18th birthday, he needed to complete a seven-year residency period in order to represent the three lions, which changed recently.
The pacer is currently a part of the Rajasthan Royalsâ setup and England skipper Eoin Morgan revealed that all eyes will be on Archerâs performance in the Indian domestic league ahead of a potential call up to the English team for the series against Pakistan. Archer made his IPL debut in April 2018 against Mumbai Indians where he picked up three wickets and won the player of the match award.Â
"The hype about Jofra playing around the world and doing well and attracting a lot of attention is justified as he has put in performances that warrant looking at. Trevor Bayliss said after the West Indies series we will look at him against Pakistan and that's what we will do. We don't have to name our (World Cup) squad until the end of the Pakistan series so we'll have a look and see how he goes," said Morgan during a recent ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy tour event.
The English cricket team suffered an early exit from the 2015 ICC ODI World Cup but under Morganâs captaincy, the team has jumped to the number one spot in the ICC ODI team rankings ahead of India. However, the English captain won't let the â
"You can't ignore it but we've prepared for going into the World Cup as favourites. It's something which sits absolutely fine with us. The reason it is there is because of the success we've had in the past but that's all in the past now and our focus needs to be on what's to come and the things we need to do.
"There's a huge opportunity for us to go and continue playing the cricket we have done over the last three and a half years off the back of a challenging tour to the West Indies where we were tested in every department. I think, sitting here right now, we're equipped really well. We still have one game in Dublin against Ireland and our games at home against Pakistan in the build-up to the World Cup so there's plenty of cricket to be played but all the focus is going to be on the competition," Morgan added.
