The pitches in India, when it comes to Test matches, are often prepared to boost spinners more than pacers. Such wickets do hurt the hopes of pacers, particularly of touring sides. Rather than getting bogged down by the challenges, England pacer Jofra Archer expressed confidence in his team’s ability to stand up to the task.
Archer, in his column for Daily Mail, looked to bank on his experience from playing in the Indian Premier League in order to prepare for the England series.
“I’ve played lots of Indian Premier League here but nothing in terms of first-class cricket, so the challenges of bowling with a red ball will become clearer,” he wrote in the Daily Mail.
“In the IPL the batters have to come at you, whereas in Test cricket they can sit on you for a full session if they want and if the pitch is dead there is nothing you can do about it.”
Whether the pitches aid pace bowlers or not, Archer expressed faith over spinners in the England team to rise up to the challenge.
“So let’s hope we get some good wickets with a little bit of pace for the bowlers. Or even some turn, because if they spin, the matches will not be one-sided. We have good spinners in our squad and India won’t out-spin us.”
Archer has reached Chennai ahead of the start of the series and entered the bio-secure bubble set up by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Having been a part of numerous bubbles since cricket resumed in the Covid-19 era, Archer is coming into the series after a refreshing break.
Having played 11 Tests for England so far, it would be the first opportunity for Archer to play red-ball cricket in India.
