Mumbai Indians' star pacer Jofra Archer has been ruled out of the remainder of the Indian Premier League 2023 with an injury. The star English speedster was struggling throughout the tournament with fitness issues and missed five of Mumbai's ten matches as well. Another English veteran Chris Jordan is named as Archer's replacement, with the former joining Mumbai's camp last week.
Mumbai Indians have confirmed Archer's departure and said that the pacer's recovery will be monitored by English Cricket Board (ECB). Archer missed considerable matches for England in the last two years due to injury and last played Test cricket in February 2021. Archer is expected to make England's squad for the Ashes 2023 which kick off from June 16 in Birmingham. England are also playing a one-off Test against Ireland at Lord's starting on June 1 but it will be too early for Archer's return to action.
Archer's struggles with injury clearly affected his performances in IPL 2023 as he took only two wickets from five innings at a poor economy rate of 9.50. His last appearance came in Mumbai's latest game against Chennai Super Kings on May 6 where he failed to get any wickets while defending 139 runs.
Mumbai Indians' IPL 2023 campaign started with star pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Jhye Richardson missing the entire tournament with injuries. Fans were expecting big performances from Archer but the right-arm pacer failed to hit the form. Cameron Green, Riley Meredith, Duan Jansen, and Jason Behrendorff are also struggling for consistency as Mumbai Indians sit in the eighth position in the points table with just five wins from ten matches after match no.53.
Rohit Sharma-led side will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in their next game at Wankhede Stadium on May 9.
Mumbai Indians Squad: Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan(w), Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Tim David, Nehal Wadhera, Jofra Archer, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Arshad Khan, Kumar Kartikeya, Ramandeep Singh, Dewald Brevis, Raghav Goyal, Vishnu Vinod, Riley Meredith, Shams Mulani, Arjun Tendulkar, Tilak Varma, Hrithik Shokeen, Duan Jansen, Sandeep Warrier, Jason Behrendorff, Chris Jordan
