There was quite a bit of confusion around Jofra Archer and his participation in the upcoming IPL 2025 season. The Barbados-born England fast bowler was added into the player list just days ahead of the auction.
First, there were reports that with the England team management eyeing a Test comeback for him, Archer decided against putting his name in the auction. However, after understanding the repercussions of missing the 2025 IPL auctions, Archer opted to go into the auction. He fetched a staggering INR 12.5 crore (£1.18 million) in the auction as he was bought by Rajasthan Royals (RR).
Archer has not played a Test match since February 2021. His participation in the white-ball formats has been managed by England. In fact, 2024 is the year where he has played the second-most international games (20) after playing 22 international games in his debut year (2019).
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) director of cricket Rob Key admitted that the plan was to ensure Archer is ready for the Test summer in 2025. That would mean missing the IPL in order to build up his workload.
“Jofra is always brilliant to deal with. We were like, ‘The best thing might be to miss the IPL this year and get yourself ready, and we’ll start building your loads up… if you can get through a bit of Championship cricket, and then you can start the Test summer. He was happy with that,” Rob Key was quoted saying to Wisden.
However, that did not go to plan as the BCCI tweaked the rules for overseas players which said that if they do not participate in the mega auction (unless there is an injury), that player would not be allowed to take part in the following auction. Hence, if Archer missed the 2025 season, he would not be able to participate in the 2026 edition either.
Thus, it would be a major setback financially, given Archer is one of the most sought-after fast bowlers. That’s when Key left the decision to the 29-year-old.
“But we had to look and see what India were going to do with [the IPL’s rules]. They [the BCCI] came back after a bit of back-and-forth and said, ‘Well no, he won’t be allowed to go into this year, next year from then on. So, then you start thinking that could be about $4 million that he loses out on there. And I don’t then feel… then it’s on him, really. You say, ‘Jof, what do you want to do? This is your career, your life. You’ll still be able to play Test cricket,” Key explained.
‘Playing the IPL means Archer will be a couple of months behind schedule’
According to Key, Archer will still be ready to play Test cricket even if he plays the IPL. The only difference would be that his comeback would be pushed back by a couple of months. The England team management are looking to get Archer fit for at least a couple of Test matches in the 2025 summer. However, their aim is to get him ready for the 2025-26 Ashes down under.
“We believe there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge for that. But we still think he’ll be alright. We’ll just be a couple of months behind… So then Jofra decided that he felt the best thing for him was to go into the IPL [auction], which we had no issue with, and then do that loading throughout the IPL and get himself ready for the Test series that way,” the ECB director of cricket added.
England host Zimbabwe in a one-off Test before facing India in a five-match Test series in the 2025 summer. Hence, it’ll be interesting to see when Archer makes a comeback in Test cricket.
