Mumbai Indians raised plenty of eyebrows when they splashed Rs 8 crore on Jofra Archer despite the fact that he wasn't going to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season, as he continued to recover from an elbow issue that had kept him out of action for months.
More recently though, the Englishman appeared to be on track to make his comeback from that injury setback, but it appears that he has suffered another injury, this time a stress fracture to his lower back which could rule him out for a further few months.
With Archer a doubt for England this summer, and with the T20I World Cup on the horizon, there are huge concerns about whether he will be able to play for his franchise Mumbai Indians in IPL 2023 or not.
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Reacting to the speculation regarding Archer's future, MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene has broken his silence about the pacer's availability ahead of next season.
The former Sri Lankan legend spoke to India Today and assured that the franchise's experts will keep an eye on Archer's progress and that there's still a long way to go for IPL 2023.
"Jofra's availability for the next season is too far ahead at the moment. Our experts will keep an eye on his fitness along with those in the ECB. It is a new injury and not an old one, so hopefully, recovery should be quicker for him. We’ll see how he progresses from this injury," stated Jayawardene.
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At the moment, there is no time scale available when Jofra Archer is likely to return to full fitness, however, he is scheduled to miss the English summer with the Three Lions scheduled to take on New Zealand in a three-match Test series in June, followed by India's tour of England.
Mumbai Indians meanwhile struggled a lot this season as they could have used Archer having not been able to pick up wickets in crucial moments, and their batsmen also let them down this season. The five-time champs look set to finish at the bottom of the IPL 2022 league standings.
