Tim David opens about Jofra Archer’s availability ahead of KKR clash

Mumbai Indians are having a tough time in the Indian Premier League season 16 as they’ve just won just one match out of their first three encounters. The five-time champions suffered a big blow as the speedster Jofra Archer got injured during the first game against RCB and has since missed the two fixtures that MI have played thus far.

Ahead of their fourth game against Kolkata Knight Riders, star batter Tim David has hinted about Archer’s unavailability for match No 22 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday, April 16. David revealed that Archer was still under medical supervision and he could neither deny nor confirm his availability.

“At the moment Jof is being managed by the medical team and I am not a part of those conversations. Whenever they have him ready to play he will be ready to go,” David was quoted as saying by India Today.

According to reports, Archer had a fairly light bowling session during the afternoon on Saturday, April 15 away from the training nets. He returned later on to have a bat and looked comfortable playing some big shots.

Meanwhile, Mumbai will have a big challenge to keep KKR’s batters quiet who have scored 200-plus totals in their last three encounters. The trio of Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh have been in sublime form and will take full advantage of the good batting conditions at Wankhede.

Talking about the dangerous batting line-up of KKR, David further said that it will be difficult to plan for them and MI are more focused on themselves and playing good cricket.

KKR have got some dangerous batsmen: Tim David

“They (KKR) have got some dangerous batsmen and (if) our bowlers get them out (early) that will be a perfect start for us. But no, it is tough to plan, I think. We are more focussed on ourselves and we want to play a good game and we know when we play our best cricket we are going to top,” David added.

Mumbai started their campaign in the ongoing season with an 8-wicket loss against RCB. They further lost their second game at their home ground against arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets.

The Rohit Sharma-led side finally tasted their first victory against Delhi Capitals in their third game which went down to the last ball. But eventually, Mumbai chased down the target as Tim David held his nerve and managed to get two crucial runs against Anrich Nortje on the last delivery of the match.