England pace sensation Jofra Archer recently completed one year in international cricket. It has been quite a journey for Archer, in which he helped England clinch the 2019 World Cup and level the Ashes against Australia at home.

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Elated by Archer’s progress at the highest level, his Sussex coach and former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie while speaking to Stats Perform said, “I've been very excited by Jofra. Obviously, he plays at Sussex and my dealings with Jofra have been nothing short of fantastic. He's a very likeable young man, loves his cricket, very passionate, he's very hardworking.”

Jofra, however, has also coped a fair share of criticism when he failed to live up to the expectations during the tour of South Africa and New Zealand.

Gillespie finds his ward’s scrutiny a bit harsh and he feels it is more do with the lazy narrative than his performances.

Notably, the Barbados-born speedster claimed 55 wickets across all formats in 2019.

"I’ve been pretty disappointed with some of the criticism levelled at Jofra. I think he suffers a little bit from perception. There's that laid-back demeanour that he has.

"He's got a few gold chains, he's got the different hairstyle, he’s got that sort of laid-back West Indian approach. He's Barbadian-born, so he has that approach.

"That perception of that laid-back attitude, people assume that he doesn’t care or he’s not putting [effort] in, and that couldn't be further from the truth. The kid lives and breathes cricket, and I think he's been fantastic," Gillespie said.

Before COVID-19 rocked the sporting events, Jofra Archer was under rehab after sustaining the elbow stress fracture. Under normal circumstances, he would have returned to action for Sussex in May.