England speedster Jofra Archer was the hottest uncapped cricketer coming at the Indian Premier League (IPL) Auction 2018 with a Big Bash League match for Hobart Hurricanes.
However, his pace with the ball was the reason why the Rajasthan Royals earned the services of the Barbados all-rounder for a whopping A$1.4 million (INR 7.2 crore) in the IPL auction in 2018 – which shocked many as he wasn’t a renowned name in world cricket at that time, but now he is the big cog of the Royals set-up over the three years as well as England national team.
Archer had a sensation IPL debut with 15 wickets in 2018 and then once again finished as among the highest wicket-takers in the premier T20 league in the last season with 11 wickets for RR in 2019.
He was retained by the franchise for the third consecutive season but was ruled out of the suspended IPL 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic with a stress fracture on his right elbow. However, the pacer might be a part of the IPL 2020 if it goes ahead in the second half of the year.
Recently, Archer had a conversation with RR spin consultant Ish Sodhi on the RR’s podcast – where the speed sensation revealed that he never thought he would play in the IPL 2018 because of his zero experience at the international cricket.
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Archer said on RR Podcast: “I was obviously excited! I had just got off the field two or three hours earlier, we (Hobart Hurricanes) had a game in Melbourne and had just beaten the (Melbourne) Stars. Myself, D’Arcy Short, Ben McDermott all the guys who were in the draft, we had minivans that we got to take from the ground. All the guys in the auction took the first bus back and we watched it together.”
The speedster continued, “I had two phones at the time, one on the phone to CJ (Chris Jordan) and the other to my parents. I watched it but I remember before I told CJ that I probably won't play a game because I haven't played any international cricket. I told him I'll probably get picked up at my base price and I'll probably spend eight weeks in India and not play any cricket!
But I was still grateful regardless, and then in the next few months, I ended up being in India. That's where I met most of the guys, the squad hasn't really changed going into the second year and the third year now, it has still been the majority of the same guys. I think that is a great thing that Rajasthan is doing, to keep the core of the team the same.”
He signed off by saying, “When I saw the bidding start a few teams were going at it, and I was thinking wow I'm actually going to get to go to India for sure, so I was even happier than when the bidding started because I knew for sure that at least I would get to be associated with a franchise.”
(With IANS Inputs)
