Rajasthan Royals have not given up hope that Jofra Archer will recover from an elbow injury in time to play in the Indian Premier League.
It had been announced that the pace bowler would miss the IPL and England’s upcoming tour of Sri Lanka due to a stress fracture.
Archer has been struggling with the injury and played only the first Test in England’s series success in South Africa.
However, officials from the Royals say they will be speaking to the ECB and won’t be rushing to replace him.
If he were to be replaced, it would rule him out of the IPL regardless of if he recovered. Replacements cannot be named once the tournament has got underway.
The loss of Archer would be a huge blow for RR as they go in search of IPL glory in 2020.
They had hoped he’d line up alongside the likes of captain Steve Smith and countryman Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler.
Rajasthan Royals are considered 10.00 (9/1) outsiders with bet365 to take the crown this year.
Royals prepared to wait for Archer
Archer took 11 wickets in 2019’s edition and Rajasthan are happy to wait on his recovery.
The likes of England’s Tom Curran or Australian Andrew Tye could fill his place if necessary.
“It’s probably a long shot as I sit here now with the information that we do have. But we won’t be in any rush to replace him, just in case things change,” Royals head coach Andrew McDonald told The Cricketer.
“I think with any injury, there’s always an assumption and timeframes and recovery periods. Some are able to recover quicker than others as more information comes to light.
“Potentially, we’re optimistic that if there was an opportunity for him to be fit at some point in time, we would hope to see him in pink.
“But first and foremost, he’s a player of the ECB and that would need to unfold by working closely with them in terms of what it looks like and be guided by their medical staff. Injuries do have timeframes on them. Some people do heal quicker than others.
“Any time a world-class player goes down injured, first and foremost, you think of him and how they’re travelling. It will impact us as a team, there’s no doubt about that. But the key thing is that we wish Jofra a speedy recovery. We’re looking to work with the ECB in whatever that looks like and any way we could potentially help in that space as well.”
