Jofra Archer has been known as a rising star since his teenage years in Barbados, when his stepfather practised bowling with him for hour after hour on homemade pitches near their family home. But his promise was fulfilled this summer when the 24-year-old rookie was launched on to the world stage for the Ashes.

Archer has been nothing short of destructive since debuting with a brutal fourth-day spell during the second Test at Lord's, inspiring West Indian fast bowling great Michael Holding, now a respected commentator, to venture on Sky Sports: "This man will change the entire outlook of fast bowling in the modern era."

His frightening speed seared in Australian fans' memories when he felled batsman Steve Smith at Lord's, he continued on to a stunning third Test at Headingley, claiming no injury casualties that time but magicking match figures of 8-85 to help the home side to a one-wicket win, knotting the series at 1-1.

Such has been his impact, he has 13 wickets at a miserly average of 13.53 in only two Tests, heading into the fourth Test in Manchester. In other words, for every wicket Archer has taken, he has only conceded 13 runs.

As well as pace, Archer has a certain star power that resonates both with fans mature enough to recall the West Indies glory days and with a younger crowd – not least because of his penchant for the online game Fortnite.

What is it that makes Jofra Archer unique? What is it about his style – the moves he developed as a teenager on those dusty cricket pitches – that has led him to such startling success in England?

Who is Jofra Archer?

The English fast bowler grew up just outside the Barbados capital, Bridgetown. From the age of nine, he and his stepfather, a former police officer who now works for a bus company, Patrick Waithe, would spend hours practising on makeshift pitches near their family bungalow, using tennis balls wrapped in tape. Archer would bowl all day when time permitted, honing a natural technique that is now as smooth as it is explosive.

He later played for Pickwick Cricket Club, initially as a fast bowler, where he became known for his cricketing promise. "One day, he just clicked. I stood facing him in the nets and, in four consecutive balls, he clean-bowled me," Waithe told the London Mirror.

"It was like his bowling had been plugged into the mains and 240 volts were running through him. Everything just seemed to fall into place. Batting too.

"One time, Jofra got hold of a ball. It was like he hit it into space. I could see this car and knew what was going to happen. Sure enough, it hit the car. The driver got out and I feared the worse but he was delighted to have been hit by a ball hit by Jofra."

In his mid-teens, Archer had morphed into a wicketkeeper and leg-spinner for the Christ Church Foundation School. He returned from a summer holiday having had a growth spurt, and with the build required to be an intimidating fast bowler. Encouraged by physical education teacher Nhamo Winn to return to fast bowling, Archer had an immediate impact. The foundation for what shapes as a grand international career had been set.

Why isn't Archer playing for the West Indies?

The West Indies once boasted a proud production line of elite fast bowlers but that has slipped since the end of the era of Courtney Walsh (from Jamaica) and Curtly Ambrose (from Antigua). Archer shaped up as being part of a new breed when he was selected in the under-19s national side. But when he was overlooked for the 2014 World Cup, he became disenchanted with the sport in his homeland and believed the only way he could pursue his dream was to leave.

Archer's biological father, Frank Archer, was English, and while he had split from his Barbadian mother, Joelle, when the lad was three, Frank had a British passport – meaning his son could have residency in England. Under long-held England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) rules, Archer initially was going to have to wait seven years to represent his adopted country, as he hadn't lived in England until after his 18th birthday. But in November 2018, the ECB – with the urging of Test captain Joe Root – revealed it had changed the rules, reducing the eligibility period from seven years to three, correlating with International Cricket Council regulations.

Archer joined county club Sussex after making the move in 2015 and, a year later, made his first-class debut during Pakistan's tour of England. He immediately impressed. In 2017, he signed with the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League, and in 2018 he was drafted by the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. He was fast-tracked into England's limited overs squad against Pakistan in April and also the one-off one-day international against Ireland. He debuted against Ireland in May and, days later, had his first Twenty20 International, against Pakistan.

While the buzz that followed the hostile quick grew, he was initially overlooked this year for England's preliminary World Cup squad but, when the final 15-man squad was revealed, Archer was chosen. He claimed 3-27 off seven overs in England's opening World Cup clash, leaving veteran batsman Hashim Amla concussed after he was hit on the helmet. Former England captains Michael Vaughan and Mike Atherton immediately pencilled him in for the Ashes.

As coach of Sussex, former Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie said before the Ashes that Archer's best format would be the sport's long form.

"He adds another dimension to this England bowling attack – he's got pace, bounce, movement off the seam, through the air. Four-day cricket, five-day cricket is when he will be at his best," he said.

What's remarkable about his bowling action?

His height (182 centimetres) is shy of many other West Indian legends such as Curtly Ambrose (2.01 metres) and Joel Garner (2.03 metres), who each extracted a frightening bounce, so height is not the key. His fastest delivery so far in the Ashes is 154.65km/h – blistering but still short of the fastest ever recorded in international cricket, 161.3km/h by Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan – so raw speed, while certainly persuasive, is not his only weapon.

A batsman facing a ball at 150km/h has an average .48 seconds to react, according to research by Dr Rene Ferdinands, a biomechanics expert at the University of Sydney, some of which is taken up with perceiving and deciding, which leaves just .28 seconds to actually move to hit the ball.

In such a high-velocity setting, Archer's pace and biomechanical precision meld with an element of surprise. In a nutshell, he combines a relatively brief and languid run-up with an explosively powerful delivery at the crease. The usual cues that would be scrutinised by a batsman – the long run-up, the backward lean before delivery – are simply not there, but the power is.

Former Australian fast bowler Ryan Harris, now a Cricket Australia high-performance manager who works with elite young quicks, has analysed Archer's action.

"I am a little bit jealous of how he does it because he just ambles in and is obviously very, very strong," says Harris. "Everything at the crease is braced, it's all timing. It's just a unique thing, everyone is different, and the way they go about it.

"His mechanics, his body – he is, obviously, blessed. It all just clicks, and that's why he bowls the rockets that he does. He hits a lot of guys in the head because he doesn't have that really fast approach. He creeps up on guys and surprises guys with his pace because of the way he runs in."

What is the catapult effect?

Former Australian spearhead Craig McDermott says Archer's braced leg, with an unbent knee, is pivotal. "You even look at someone like [Chris] Woakes, he locks his front leg beautifully, and he gets good pace for not being a big fella. It's really important. If you bowl with a slightly bent front leg ... you don't get that catapult," he says.

The catapult effect is critical to Archer's damaging bounce. "In a perfect world," says Harris, who claimed 113 Test wickets at 23.52, "you brace your front leg and get up and over your front leg. The idea is to get momentum going to straight to the batsman.

"If you get everything right and your timing right, that's when nine times out of 10 your pace will be pretty good and your wrist will be in a good position and the ball, obviously, you can put it where you want to put it.

If you get everything right and your timing right … you can put it where you want to put it.

Former Australian fast bowler Ryan Harris

"If everything goes away from that, if your weight is going sideways, you have to counteract somewhere else. That's where some guys can do it, some guys are unique, and everyone is different – but, ideally, that is what we try and teach."

Archer bowls at 154.5km/hr to Steve Smith on a stump-to-stump line.

Knee drive, fast hips, whippy arms – how do they help?

Once the front leg is braced, this allows Archer's hips to accelerate through, pulling the rest of his torso with it. Harris says a critical part of this is Archer's knee drive, being the direction in which his back leg points. In Archer's case, the knee points to the batsman and not laterally, as is not uncommon with other bowlers. Everything is in alignment.

"His knee drive is unbelievable. From the brace to the knee drive, your hips come through, that obviously gets him in a good position. He brings his body around," Harris says.

"That knee drive is huge. It is beautiful and perfect.

"His [arm] action is so whippy and so fast ... it is really hard to pick [the ball] up."

By pick up, he means the batsman's highly honed ability to detect where the ball is heading so as to play the shot. A batsman will have milliseconds to do this.

"That helps with his surprise factor and why he is so unique. The amount of blokes that have been hit so far is just phenomenal," Harris says.

"The ball that got Steve Smith was a decent ball but, to be fair to Steve, the wicket was up and down and really hard to play and contributed to the result that happened to him. With someone with pace banging the wicket and doing that sort of stuff, that's what can happen – you can get seriously hurt."

How does his run-up to the crease factor in?

Archer does it easy during his run-up, says McDermott, who claimed 291 Test wickets at 28.63, and has been the bowling coach of the Australian side.

"I tried to shorten my run-up – but no good," says McDermott. "It didn't work. His [Archer's number of steps] are about 13 to 15. Wasim Akram's was off 13 and he was another one with fast arm speed. All of us other fellas had to run fast to bowl fast."

Many bowlers also run in on an angle before bowling. Archer goes straight in.

"He also gets very close to the umpire, which is a bit old-fashioned," Harris says. "Not a lot of blokes do it these days, but he does it beautifully. And he keeps that straight line."

Bowling beside the umpire allows Archer to pursue a "stump to stump" line, which has a threefold effect: it gives the batsman less response time to fend off a bouncer while also allowing Archer to attack the batsman's stumps and pads, as Terry Alderman so successfully did for Australia.

"As everything is going forward and straight, and not across, or left and right, he is able to do that," Harris says.

At 2.03m tall, bowler Joel Garner was a weapon for the West Indies.

What's the future for Archer?

There is little doubt Archer will become a pin-up boy of world cricket. He has the looks, the charisma and the charm, and is a throwback to the halcyon days of West Indian fast bowling. For the batsmen who lived through that time, that's not a pleasant memory – but for those who love the edge-of-seat excitement that only express quicks can provide, Archer is one to cherish.

He connects not only to the pure cricket fan but to a younger generation looking for someone "cool". And that's where his love of the popular video game Fortnite comes into play. When he tweeted from the team hotel before the Leeds Test that his TV was without an HDMI port, meaning he could not play his favourite video game, there was an outpouring of suggestions from fans – and a new television provided by the hotel to ensure he could play the game. It turned out to the biggest screen he had ever played on. He is a marketing dream.

His value will only grow through this northern winter and, provided the English Cricket Board manages him well, as it has done with fellow fast bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad, Archer will lead England's attack for at least the next eight to 10 years.