Australia great Shane Warne believes Jofra Archer could be the man to stop Steve Smith’s Ashes run-spree as “no one likes to face tall 90 mph (145 kph) bowlers”.
World Cup-winner Archer is set to make his Test debut at Lord’s next week after being included in England’s squad for the second match of the Ashes series.
Australia batting star Smith made 144 and 142 in a 251-run win for the visitors in the opener at Edgbaston during a superb return to Test cricket following a 12-month ban for his role in a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa — an incident that also cost him the captaincy.
“Steve (Smith) has been the star of the show so far but now we have Jofra joining his Royals (and England) team-mates Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler,” Warne, a former Rajasthan player turned brand ambassador for the Twenty20 franchise team, said Friday after Archer was named in England’s 12-man squad for Lord’s.
Former leg-spinner Warne, the second-most successful bowler in Test history with 708 wickets, added: “Obviously I would love to see Steve go on and score a hundred in every single innings for the rest of the Ashes but with Jofra coming in I think he’ll be set to face his biggest challenge yet and this could make the difference in the upcoming Tests.
Anderson only managed four overs before breaking down at Edgbaston and Warne, 49, said: “The loss of Anderson was such a blow for England and they will really need Jofra to step up but I think he has all the attributes to do just that.
