- England’s tour of India started with loss, with India winning by seven wickets
- Jofra Archer believes that India’s batters were ‘extremely lucky’ on Wednesday
- The Three Lions face the hosts again on Saturday afternoon, trailing 1-0
Jofra Archer reckons India were ‘lucky’ in going 1-0 up in Wednesday’s Twenty20 series opener and is hoping for a change of fortune after arriving in Chennai.
Fast bowler Archer put in arguably his best display in an England shirt since returning from injury last year, but his couple of new-ball wickets were insufficient to halt India’s charge to a paltry target at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.
‘I guess the conditions just favoured me a little bit more than the other bowlers. The other bowlers bowled well, but the batters were extremely lucky,’ he said, after claiming figures of 4-0-21-2.
‘A few balls, well a lot of balls, went up in the air but didn’t go to hand and probably next game they all go to hand and they’re 40 for six.
‘It’s just important to keep the head up, this happens a lot in India, especially in the IPL. The batters go hard, the bowlers go hard and we were just on the unlucky side of it.’
Asked if defending a total of 132 all out was realistic on one of the country’s smallest grounds, Archer said: ‘Yeah, you’ve always got to try in the beginning, because if you get them three or four down in the power play then usually teams bat differently in the middle.
Jofra Archer said India’s batters were ‘extremely lucky’ in their opening win against England
India took a 1-0 lead in their Twenty20 series with England after winning by seven wickets
Archer was solid for the Three Lions, taking two wickets while allowing 21 runs in four overs
‘The only way you’re going to know is if you try. We gave it a try, it didn’t work, so we will try again next game.’
It spoke of Archer’s menace that Jos Buttler posted himself as a short leg at the start of India’s innings.
However, the Sussex star said: ‘Although they are nice to see, they are just there for the theatre, to get in the batter’s head, and be aesthetically pleasing.’
England hope he will be in Australian heads at the end of a year in which he turns 30, as a member of the fast-bowling pack charged with wresting back the Ashes urn down under.
It is now four years since Archer played Test cricket, but his first first-class appearance since May 2021 and an increase in his bowling workload will not come until the second half of the County Championship season after the ECB relented on keeping him out of the 2025 Indian Premier League.
Of his plans to play four-day cricket, he simply said: ‘Let’s just get through this series first and then we can work with that later.’
