Is Archer fit to play the T20 series- Archer Hales missed the second and fourth Tests in the recent series against India due to the discomfort caused by his right arm. The fast bowler suffered a stress fracture in the same elbow in South Africa, ruling him out of the subsequent Test series in Sri Lanka. England will go into the opening T20 against India with a full squad including paceman Jofra Archer declared fit after an elbow injury.
England captain Eoin Morgan didn't reveal his team on the eve of the match to keep his options open. He confirmed that Archer is determined to play all formats of cricket for as long as he can.
Morgan added that Archer's bowling has variety proving him "a huge asset" for the team. "He's a guy who can bowl in three parts of the game and be threatening whenever he comes on," said Archer, according to SkySports article. "He obviously has express pace, can bowl cutters, variations, and has a very good yorker. If you look at any of his performances as a whole they all sort of suggest that he will have a significant role to play in the World Cup." Archer is also playing for Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming Indian Premier League that begins on April 9. Morgan expressed how spending more time on the field with Archer, made him understand what makes the bowler tick. "He's always been engaging - he is a younger member of our squad who has different interests to the majority of our squad because the majority of our squad is in their late twenties or early thirties," explained Morgan. "He loves enjoying what he does in traveling, playing Xbox, playing cricket and playing in front of big, big crowds and he is a big family man so the more I've got to know him the better our relationship is and the more I've grown to enjoy his company away from the game. He's a funny guy."
England is ready to play against India in the T20 series. India is ranked number one in the world in this format. Players like Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin inspired India to a 3-1 success in the Test series, pose a threat to England in further tournaments.
"When you break our game down naturally as English players coming through, it's probably our biggest learning point that we need to improve on," said Morgan. "We don't get exposed to a lot to an extravagantly turning ball but the more the guys play against it, the better they become at managing it. So we need to be exposed to it because come to the World Cup there's a chance we might play [against it]. India's a huge country with completely different conditions at every ground and in 2016 we didn't play on a wicket that turned extravagantly - there were only Nagpur where the ball did turn significantly. It's better to go through this process now as opposed just in the World Cup."
England Team Morgan, Moeen Ali, Archer, Bairstow, Billings, Buttler, S Curran, T Curran, Jordan, Livingstone, Malan, Rashid, Roy, Stokes, Topley, Wood