England speedster Jofra Archer has hit back at the former England captain and commentator Michael Vaughan for questioning his commitment towards Test cricket while reiterating his desire of playing in all three formats of the game for the side.
Archer, who made his Test debut for England in 2019, has always found himself under the scanner for his drive and commitment towards the longest format of the game and was recently yet again targeted following his ordinary show in the recent Test series against India.
The right-arm pacer picked up three wickets in the first Test before missing the next two Test matches due to an elbow injury. However, the speedster returned in the fourth and final Test, but had a poor outing, taking just one wicket as India thrashed England by an innings and 25 runs to win the series 3-1.
Following his poor performance in Test cricket once again, several critics including Vaughan have once again raised questions about his commitment. Vaughan among the critics has targeted Archer in British Media by suggesting England needs to find out the reason why he “doesn’t love Test cricket”.
Unsurprisingly, Vaughan’s comments didn’t go down well with Archer, as the pacer lambasted the former captain and other critics by saying the latter doesn’t know him well enough to make any comment regarding his choices and no one can be “110%” all the time on the field.
Archer wrote for the Daily Mail, “Comments like ‘he’s not committed’ or ‘he’s not good enough’ appear as soon as you are not 110 percent. I find it quite annoying how people read into stuff and form their own opinions.
I saw an article from Michael Vaughan in which he said, ‘if Jofra doesn’t love Test cricket, England needs to find out why.’ We’ve never had a conversation about cricket, so I found it a bit odd. He doesn’t know what makes me tick. He doesn’t know what’s driving me.”
He further added, “Let me be clear about something: I’ve never changed my attitude towards playing for England. I’ve always wanted to play all three formats. That hasn’t changed, and never will as far as I’m concerned.
I always dreamed of playing Test cricket and don’t feel I’ve had a bad game so far — yet unless I am taking four or five wickets in an innings, I am placed under scrutiny and some people start trying to decipher what’s going on.”
However, the pacer isn’t worried about his performance in Test cricket.
Archer signed off, “Everyone must start somewhere, and I am still relatively new to Test cricket. I am making my way, much the same as the two great bowlers in this England set-up, James Anderson and Stuart Broad once did. And I am happy with a bowling average of 31 so far because I can get better.”
