The Ashes: England sensation Jofra Archer is a cricket anorak, reveals best pal Chris Jordan
ALL England is hoping Jofra Archer’s epic Lord’s duel with Steve Smith ends up as the definitive turning point in this Ashes series.
And if so, we can trace the beginning of England’s fightback to two friends watching TV together on a sofa in Hove.
There, Archer and Chris Jordan — Sussex team-mates, best pals, nextdoor neighbours and virtual ‘brothers’ — were glued to the screen as Smith ground out a total of 286 runs during Australia’s First Test victory at Edgbaston.
According to Jordan, England’s new sensation is an obsessive cricketing anorak.
He said: “You might not guess it, but Jofra is an undercover student of the game.
“He will watch any cricket that is on TV, he will study it carefully and he’ll learn.
“We watched a lot of that First Test, on my sofa and his, and he was studying Smith and figuring ways to get him out.
“Jofra and Smith are team-mates with Rajasthan Royals (in the Indian Premier League), so he’s bowled at him in the nets but he’s always working out which of his strengths he can use to dismiss batsmen.”
A week later, on his Test debut, Archer certainly found a way to rattle the Australian run machine with perhaps the most sustained spell of hostile fast bowling ever seen from an England player.
Archer struck Smith on the arm, then the back of the neck, forcing him to retire hurt.
Smith briefly returned to the crease, only to be trapped by Chris Woakes, but was unable to bat in the second innings because of concussion.
NEW HOPE
England remain 1-0 down going into today’s Third Test at Headingley, yet they have found a shimmering new hope while Smith remains sidelined.
Jordan, who has played eight Tests for England and remains part of their Twenty20 side, was transfixed by that Archer-Smith duel.
He said: “Smith cover drove Jofra for four and as soon as he did that, I knew Jofra would crank up his speeds from 87-88mph to well up into the 90s and that’s what he did.
“When he gets a sniff, he flicks a switch, then he’s bowling lightning fast. When Jofra concedes runs, he hates it with a passion.
“It’s unusual for a genuine fast bowler to go for so few runs but that is testament to Jofra’s intelligence. If he isn’t taking wickets, he’s desperate to give his captain control.
“Another very unusual thing we noticed playing Championship cricket is that he’ll actually bowl faster and faster in each new spell as the day goes on.”
Jofra would never want to hurt anyone. But all fast bowlers, all cricketers, know it is part of the game. He will just have been disappointed that he didn’t get Smith out.
Chris Jordan
Archer, 24, received criticism for seemingly not showing enough concern when Smith was poleaxed by his blow to the neck.
Yet Jordan, who handed Archer his first Test cap in a ceremony on the Lord’s outfield, said: “You’d only have to meet Jofra for five minutes to know he’d never want to hurt anyone.
“But all fast bowlers, all cricketers, know it is part of the game.
“Jofra will just have been disappointed that he didn’t get Smith out.
“If he’d got him out on the back of unsettling him with short stuff, then fine, but he’d have wanted to get him out.”
Jordan, who speaks to Archer every day, describes his friend as a ‘dressing-room prankster’ and a Fortnite enthusiast on the Xbox.
But he does not sound remotely surprised at Archer’s rapid rise from international rookie to World Cup hero and Ashes phenomenon.
SUPER OVER SAVIOUR
Jordan, 30, watched the climax of England’s World Cup final victory over New Zealand with their Sussex team-mates in the dressing room at Old Trafford.
He said: “I predicted Jofra would score the winning runs — because people don’t yet realise how good he can be with the bat.
“But when he got out and it went to a Super Over, I had zero doubt that he’d bowl it and win it.
“He has such confidence. If he decides to bowl a new kind of delivery, he’ll practice it in the nets one day and bowl it in a World Cup match the next.
“Most of us would practice for four or five months before we thought a new ball was match-ready.”
Jordan first met Archer when he returned to their native Barbados to play first-class cricket in the Caribbean.
There in the nets at Spartan Cricket Club, the future West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman Shai Hope warned Jordan that a 16-year-old kid would be deceptively quick off a short run-up.
Jordan recalled: “Shai wasn’t wrong. Jofra bowled a bouncer first up and if it had been more accurate it would have cleaned me out.”
The pair became firm friends and Jordan recommended Archer, whose father is British, to Sussex.
Jordan added: “Jofra never even had a Barbados passport, just a UK one, and he wanted to broaden his horizons and play for England.
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“He was quick when he got to Sussex but not 90mph — and a few who’d bowled at 90 used to tease him about that.
“Then in one televised match, I think it was against Middlesex, he touched 90mph and he was looking at the screen, telling us all.
“He’s going to make a long, successful career of this, I’m certain.”
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