How Archer rammed criticism from Aussies back down their throats

Among the many brickbats hurled England’s way in Australia has been the absence of an attack leader – a problem yet to be resolved following the retirements of Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson. But on the first day of the third Test in Adelaide, that role fell squarely on the shoulders of Jofra Archer. And he responded in style.

By stumps, Archer’s part in Australia’s 326 for eight were figures of 16–5–29–3, while England’s four other bowlers returned a combined analysis of 67–7–291–5. And by starting each session by throwing the ball to Archer, Ben Stokes made it clear which member of his attack he regards as his No 1.

Archer is not temperamentally inclined towards ramming critics’ words back down their throats. Even Stokes, who over the years has forged a genuine relationship with him, described Archer earlier this week as ‘someone who doesn’t give too much away’.

But there has been a feeling in the England camp that some of the jibes aimed at Archer during and after the second Test in Brisbane crossed the line.

Comments by Ryan Harris, the former Australian fast bowler who now coaches South Australia, were received especially badly, with Harris mocking Archer’s penchant for gold chains. ‘If he takes it off, he might be able to bowl quicker,’ he said. ‘We all know you’ve got a bit of money, mate. Take it off, will ya?’    

That followed the undisguised contempt shown by Ricky Ponting for Archer’s rapid spell to Steve Smith as the Gabba Test came to a close. ‘Too late for that, champ,’ he said in the commentary box, after Archer had responded to Stokes’s plea to land some blows in time for the rest of the series.

Before that, Matthew Hayden – another former Australian great – had looked on in horror as Archer walked round the boundary to the dressing room on the third morning in Brisbane carrying a pillow. ‘I’m sorry, but that’s a shocking look,’ he said. ‘If I was a batsman, I tell you what I’d be doing: I’d be digging in. For ever.’

Archer has been here before, of course, with pundits wondering why he can’t bowl 92mph at the click of their fingers, and refusing to engage with the cultural nuances that explain some of his behaviour. English cricket has been through this process itself, and is still emerging on the other side.

Archer has kept his counsel, turning down interview requests from all the Australian TV networks. And now he let his bowling do the talking, running in with the silky approach that persuades some onlookers he needs to release the handbrake. He obliged Australia to pay him the compliment of seeing him off, safe in the knowledge there would be loose offerings at the other end.

First he hurried Jake Weatherald into a scuffed pull that ballooned up to Jamie Smith as he ran round to his right from behind the stumps. Then, in an extraordinary first over after lunch, he had both Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green – less than 24 hours after being valued at over £2million by the IPL auction, a record for a non-Indian – caught at midwicket. The scoreboard read 94 for four: the high point of England’s day.

His three wickets still left him with a modest-looking series haul of six at 33, but that tells only part of the story. For one thing, he had two straightforward catches dropped off his bowling in Brisbane. For another, his economy rate of 3.17 has been bettered only by Australia’s Michael Neser in a series where almost everyone else has gone for at least four an over, and Brydon Carse, England’s leading wicket-taker, has cost nearly five and a half.

If the last-minute withdrawal of Steve Smith, who was suffering from vertigo-like symptoms, deprived a record Adelaide crowd of over 56,000 of a reprise of Archer’s fiery spell to Australia’s best batsman in the closing stages at Brisbane, then he was no less up for the scrap.

He regularly passed 90mph, and almost breached it in the fifth over of his third spell on a stifling day when temperatures reached 35°C. Can he do the business on a hot Wednesday in South Australia, with spectators looking to nail his every mishap? You bet he can.   

And while England’s bowling coach David Saker said there is no talk in the dressing room about attack ‘leaders’, he was full of praise for Archer’s efforts on what is traditionally the flattest pitch in the country.

‘Jof got a little bit of criticism for how quick he bowled in the second innings at Brisbane, but he came out and bowled quick and sustained his pace,’ he said. ‘I think he’s been good in every game at different stages. And for him to string three games together is really good for him and for us. He was the stand-out bowler.’

While the premature departure from this tour of the injury-prone Mark Wood raised questions about the wisdom of taking him to Australia in the first place, Archer’s successful participation in the first three games has been a tick in the ECB medics’ box.

Having not played a Test between February 2021 in Ahmedabad and this July because of an apparently endless catalogue of injuries and operations, Archer has now appeared in five of England’s last six games. He is a long way from being their banker. But the careful management of his recuperation is now being rewarded.

Who knows: by the end of this series, loose talk about pillows, chains and champs may have vanished altogether.