Rajasthan Royals pacer Jofra Archer will miss the entire IPL 2021 due to injury, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed on Friday (April 23). The World Cup winning pacer, underwent surgery on his middle finger and only just returned to "bowling this week with higher intensity, and the ECB and Sussex medical teams will continue to monitor his progress," the ECB said in a statement. "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," the release further added.
Archer recently had surgery to remove a glass fragment from his hand. The pacer had surgery on the middle finger of his right hand on 29 March, immediately after returning from England's tour of India, during which the injury was managed successfully. Archer is the third England player with RR to be ruled out for the season after all-rounder Ben Stokes returned to the country with a finger injury he sustained while fielding in RR's first match of the season. A week ago England’s Liam Livingstone pulled out of the league due to bubble fatigue accumulated over the past year. England’s world No. 1 T20I batsman Dawid Malan, who was with Livingstone in their national team’s bio-bubble, said things can get tricky for players following current Covid-19 protocols. RR have struggled to get going in the tournament so far, and find themselves bottom of the table with three losses and one win. Both the Royals and Archer came to the decision mutually. Archer finished as the player of the tournament last year, for having picked 20 wickets in 14 games, with an economy of 6.55 and having had scored 113 runs.
