Mumbai Indians pacer Jofra Archer to be available from IPL 2023
England pacer Jofra Archer revealed that he was picked up for big money in the mega auction only for his worth as a player. Archer who has been suffering from the elbow injury had missed a lot of international action since mid last year. However, he put up his name in the IPL 2022 mega auction despite being not available for the entire season this year. The speedster created a bidding war among Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals and finally landed in the hands of Mumbai Indians for INR 8 Crores. Archer will be plying his trade for the Mumbai Indians franchise from the next IPL season.
Archer is one of the quickest bowlers going around in IPL and he can have a big impact with the ball for any franchise. He has picked up 46 wickets in 35 IPL games so far at an average of 21.3 and has an impressive economy rate of 7.13 despite bowling the tough overs. He has the ability to bowl some amazing deliveries with the new ball and gets his yorkers in towards the death overs. With Jasprit Bumrah being in the Mumbai Indians squad already, the side will have one of the most-destructive bowling combinations next year.
You only got that money because other teams wanted you: Jofra Archer
Archer mentioned that he wants to be seen as a player instead of the price tag that has been associated with him and felt that the demand for him had got his price tag up. He also spoke about the conversations with Akash Ambani, the c0-owner of the Mumbai Indians about the football club Arsenal and reckoned that the franchise gets closer to their players always.
“I want people to know that if you don’t play you don’t get paid. I want people to see me as a player and not as a price like that behind me. You only got that money because other teams wanted you. It looks very close knit. Akash (Ambani, the owner of the franchise) called and we spoke about Arsenal – I don’t know why he likes Arsenal. It is very a close knit team,” Archer was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
The 26-year-old also explained the situation when he started receiving messages after messages during training and revealed the excitement of joining the most successful IPL franchise, Mumbai Indians.
“I had to go on IPL website to see the video of it. I was training. Then my phone started to go up, back to back messages. I think SRH and MI team went for me. When I saw my phone, I knew exactly what happened. I really got excited. It’s a great franchise. Mahela (Jayawardene, the MI coach) was my first franchise coach as well. Polly (Kieron Pollard) as well, played a few games against him. This is the first time ever I will be playing in the same team with him. Really excited to get started,” he added.
