(^) Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 13, 2019
72 THE ASHES SECOND TEST1 DAY TO GO
JOFRA’S OUR SMI
Whole new ball game: Australia swap cricket for rugby REUTERS
LORDS OF THE MANOR: THE TOU
Menacing message
as debutant prepares
to tear into Aussies
THE ASHES
PAUL
NEWMAN
J Cricket Correspondent
ofra archer
smiled but there was
no doubting the
menace behind the
message of a Test
debutant happy to shoul-
der the burden of ashes
expectations.
‘I’m more ready than I’ve ever
been,’ said the man who bowled
england to World cup glory.
‘I’ve bowled 50 overs in one
game for Sussex already and I’m
usually the one bowling the
most overs. Justin Langer has
another thing coming.’
It was a combative response,
albeit amiably delivered, to the
australian coach’s pledge that
his batsmen would wear archer
down in a second Test starting
tomorrow at Lord’s that england
cannot afford to lose. for good
measure, cricket’s new superstar
repeated the words when he
spoke to the BBc, just in case
anyone missed what he said.
clearly, little fazes a 24-year-
old who has already made an
indelible mark on cricket his-
tory with that seismic super
over and is back at Lord’s tasked
with riding to england’s ashes
rescue after their edgbaston
fortress came crashing down.
Not even the words of an aus-
tralia coach who yesterday
made what appeared a valid
point that archer has had little
red-ball cricket in the last year
and might find it difficult to
maintain his pace and hostility
the longer he is forced to bowl.
‘I’m curious to see how he
goes,’ said Langer. ‘he’s obvi-
ously got a great temperament
and he’s an incredible athlete
but he hasn’t played much red-
ball cricket. Test cricket is very
different from white-ball cricket.
It will be the same as everyone
— we will try to get him into his
second, third and fourth spells.’
It was Jason Gillespie who told
Sportsmail ahead of the World
cup that the first-class game
was archer’s strength and Jofra
echoed his Sussex coach. ‘I have
played more red-ball cricket than
white-ball,’ insisted archer. ‘It’s
my preferred format. You get
more chances to redeem yourself.
In the one-day game if you don’t
have a good 10 overs that’s it.’
archer’s white-ball expertise
has been exposed to the world.
Less so the 28 first-class appear-
ances that brought him 131 red-
ball wickets. ‘It was actually the
first format I played regularly
for Sussex,’ said archer. ‘It was
a bit hard to get into the white-
ball team! red-ball isn’t really
shown on TV so people won’t
know about me. and if you just
look at the scorecard it doesn’t
always tell the full story of how
the game panned out.’
The second Test will certainly
be seen by a wider audience.
archer insists he was fully over
the side problem that suppos-
edly hindered him in the World
cup ahead of edgbaston, but
england did not want to risk
both him and Jimmy anderson
so soon after injury. Their caution
rebounded when anderson
broke down after four overs.
‘What I would say is don’t
expect miracles,’ said archer,
smiling again, having emphasised
his fitness with a superlative
display for Sussex 2nd XI against
Gloucestershire last week. ‘If I
make my debut I’ll come out and
do what I can. I can’t work mira-
cles. I can only give my best.’
It would be something of a
cricketing miracle if archer is
able to dismiss double first Test
centurion Steve Smith cheaply.
‘he played really well at
edgbaston,’ said archer, who
got on ‘quite well’ with Smith
when they were IPL team-mates
at rajasthan royals. ‘hopefully
I get one to do a bit more down
the slope and get him out for 90
runs less than at edgbaston.’
It seems far from certain aus-
tralia will bring back Mitchell
Fully focused:
Australia batsman
Steve Smith poses in
the Long Room at
Lord’s yesterday
GETTY IMAGES
LOOKS LIKE SAM’S BACK
ENGLAND were last night
considering a second-Test
surprise and throwing Sam
Curran into the Ashes fray at
the expense of Joe Denly.
The plan would mean Ben
Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jonny
Bairstow being promoted in
the order to accommodate
the left-arm swing bowler and
lower middle-order batsman,
who made such an impact at
home to India last summer.
England planned to back
Denly to justify the faith of
national selector Ed Smith
that he can succeed in his best
position of No 4. But the scale
of England’s first Test defeat
has forced a rethink.
Starc even though he has an
outstanding record at Lord’s.
Starc and Josh hazlewood are
pushing for inclusion and it
remains to be seen whether they
rest James Pattinson or leave
out workhorse Peter Siddle.
The one bowler england made
plans for during practice yester-
day was the last-day match-win-
ner at edgbaston, Nathan Lyon.
essex’s prolific South african
off-spinner Simon harmer was
invited to nets to replicate Lyon.
But it is smiling assassin archer
who, england hope, can do to
australia what he did to New
Zealand in the World cup final.
‘It looked different when I
came back today,’ added archer.
‘all the World cup boards have
been taken down. It just looked
normal again. But it was nice to
come back.’
england will hope this far from
normal cricketer will be smiling
again at Lord’s on Sunday, just
as he was last time he was here.
HOW AUSSIES
MADE LORD’S
THEIR FORTRESS
36
TESTS
ENG
7
AUS
15
DRAWS
14
85
AUSTRALIA have lost just
two of the last 21 Ashes
Tests at Lord’s. The 2009 and
2013 defeats are their only
losses in the last 85 years. 42
THE BAGGY GREENS
have won 42 per
cent of Tests at
Lord’s, the most of
any visiting nation.
1884 LLWL D LWDDWDWDWL DW^
THEIR RECORD AT THE HOME OF CRICKET...
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