Jofra Archer In Contention For T20 World Cup, Confirms England's Managing Director Rob Key

London [UK], April 5 (ANI): England men's managing director Rob Key confirmed that speedster Jofra Archer is in contention for the T20 World Cup and remains hopeful that he will be available for their upcoming T20I series against Pakistan next month. Since lifting the 2019 World Cup with England, Archer's career has been plagued by elbow injury which has limited his number of appearances for the Three Lions. For the past eleven months, he has been completely out of action for England. Archer has travelled to the Caribbean to play club cricket after he impressed during a two-day match between Sussex and Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA).

With less than two months left for the marquee event, Key opened up about the possibility of Archer featuring in the World Cup and told Sky Sports News, "Absolutely, He has now gone back to the Caribbean where he's going to play a bit of club cricket, all looking to get himself ready for the T20 World Cup. He'll hopefully play in the series against Pakistan [in May], but it's always fingers-crossed at the moment with Jofra."

Key went on to confirm that Archer will focus on limited-over cricket and won't feature in the longest format of the sport. In 13 Test appearances has picked up 42 wickets at an average of 31.04. The 29-year-old will miss the format in order to avoid injury and hopefully return to the format with full fitness.

"We're going to take it slower so that we get him back for not just a short period but we get him for a long period," Key said.

"The whole plan with Jofra is he's going to play white-ball cricket this summer and going into the winter. Then hopefully next summer, when we play India and then into the Ashes later that year, we get him back for Test cricket. It's a slow process to get him back for all formats," he added.

England will play first T20I against Pakistan on May 22 at the Headingley Carnegie. (ANI)