Former England cricketer Mark Ramprakash has recently opined on how to handle the fearsome English paceman Jofra Archer in the ongoing Ashes 2019 in England, suggesting the Australians batsmen to play him from the back-foot to get a bit more time against the all-rounder.
The Barbados-born Archer made a memorable Ashes debut at Lord’s, announcing himself on the biggest stage with a hostile spell of fast bowling during the second Test, where the paceman put all the Aussie line-up in discomfort, even Steve Smith who until then had been unstoppable in the series.
However, the second Test ended in a draw, but Archer stole all the show at the Lord’s iconic cricket ground with his ferocious bouncers to Smith and Marnus Labuschagne.
He would like to continue the same against the Australian batsmen in the third Ashes Test to be played in Leeds from 22 August and Ramprakash suggested the tourists to not get so far forward while playing Archer in the ongoing Test series.
Ramprakash wrote in his column for Daily Mail, “If you’ve got a couple of people for company at short leg and leg slip, you don’t really want to be getting your hands up too high when defending the short ball, because if it hits high on the bat it brings those fielders into play.”
He further went on to explain, “The Australians could try not getting so far forward, allowing more time and flexibility to get out of the way of the short ones. It was a slightly different angle, but I remember AB de Villiers doing that to Mitchell Johnson when he was bowling very quickly.
There are two ways of going with Jofra. Because he gets quite close to the stumps, his arm is very straight, and he is very similar to Shaun Pollock in that the short ball is not only very quick but on the money. So you can get across in the line of the ball, and then when it’s short try to duck to allow it to go over your left shoulder. The only problem with that is the ball does angle into the right-hander’s body and that can cramp you for room.”
Ramprakash signed off by saying, “Conversely, you could stay on leg stump. This way you would have the ball more outside your eyeline. That’s the way Robin Smith and Allan Lamb batted against West Indies. It allows you to cut whenever there is width outside off stump. Those two were very strong at that, even upper-cutting over the slips.”
(With Daily Mail Inputs)
