Rajasthan Royals’ Jofra Archer withdraws from IPL 2021

Rajasthan Royals (RR) fast bowler Jofra Archer has officially withdrawn from the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, reported PTI. The England bowler, who didn’t play in any IPL match due to injury, was earlier expected to join the league at some point.

“Archer will now step up his training regime starting next week and will be in full training with Sussex. It is expected that he will return to cricket in the next fortnight if he can continue to bowl and prepare pain-free,” said ECB in a statement.

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“The ECB will confirm which matches he is expected to play in due course.”, added the cricket board.

Archer (26) was shown a thumbs-up by his hand consultant last week to continue training after his right hand continued to recover following his surgery on March 29.

Archer was initially out of RR injured, but it was expected for him to return at some point of the tournament.

Rajasthan Royals Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara had admitted at the start of the IPL that missing Archer was a “big blow” and hoped that he would be “available at some point of time”.

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Archer, in January, suffered a wound to his hand while cleaning at his home before flying to India for the Test series. The medical team of ECB managed his injury throughout the tour, and it did not affect his availability to the team. A piece of glass was removed from his middle finger of his right hand.