Jofra Archer: an English Ashes weapon nurtured in Tasmania

A talent nurtured in Hobart shapes as a clear threat to Australia’s Ashes chances. An act of self-sabotage mitigated by the fact that the man playing in the series who knows his game better than most is Australian.

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The Hobart Hurricanes camp makes no apologies for any destruction Jofra Archer causes to Australia’s Ashes defence after providing the platform to unearth England’s next fast bowling star.

A little known quantity before arriving on Tasmanian shores late in 2017 - he was the Hurricanes’ replacement for countryman Tom Curran who had been picked in England’s Ashes squad - Archer is looming as a major wildcard when the 2019 series begins on Thursday.

And the Big Bash franchise has played a major role in Archer’s rise to stardom.

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With just 20 first-class games and 22 Twenty20 matches for Sussex under his belt when the Hurricanes confirmed his signing, Archer entered BBL|07 with little fanfare.

Jofra Archer arrived at the Hurricanes as an largely unknown foreign import in 2017.

But those within the Hobart ranks knew they had a softly spoken but competitive beast at their disposal.

By the end of BBL|07, so did the rest of the competition.

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Having played against the Barbados-born quick during a stint in County Cricket, former Australian skipper George Bailey didn’t hesitate in suggesting to Cricket Tasmania officials to keep Archer on the radar.

When Curran was plucked for international duties, they pounced.

Archer was trusted to bowl in a World Cup final ‘super-over’ while still a novice in the team.

“You trust the people around you. George came back and said ‘this guy is a gun’,” Hurricanes coach Adam Griffith said.

“So we did our research on top of that and you have a look at things, footage and numbers and you speak to other people and you do due diligence, but you trust the people that come and tell you.

“As soon as he arrived you watched him in the nets and then you watch him bowl in a game and some players just have that little bit of extra X-factor to them.

“‘Joff’ has that and you could tell that he was going to be something pretty special when he first arrived.

“As a coach you just loves to see players succeed and achieve what they want to achieve and all our job is to give them the opportunities to do that.

“We were lucky enough that ‘Joff’ chose us when we had a spot open up for him and he came across and showed what he’s very good at, and that’s bowling fast, executing and bowling Yorkers and slower balls in Big Bash cricket.”

Archer and his England team-mates show off the World Cup trophy with then British Prime Minister Teressa May.

As the rest of the world finally got to see Archer’s game changing ability during England’s World Cup triumph, it came as no surprise to Griffith.

In the UK himself as an Australian assistant, Griffith saw first-hand Archer defuse Australia’s title defence in the semis, and then hold his nerve in the incredible ‘super-over’ in the final against New Zealand.

“One of his strengths is his competitiveness and we saw that in the World Cup, that you know whenever the game is on the line, he wanted that last over.

“He’s only played a handful of one day games, and yet England entrusted him to bowl the last over of a World Cup final in a ‘super-over’.

“That probably just shows you where he’s at and the sort of character that he is.”

The somewhat shy persona of Archer - a world away from the outgoing nature of Calypso kings such as Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo - shields a fiercely driven individual, who represented the West Indies at under-19 level before moving to the UK in 2015.

He was originally facing a seven year wait to represent England until the ECB lowered its residency requirements to three years, fast tracking him into Ashes calculations.

Hurricanes captain Matthew Wade will likely face Archer at Edgbaston in the first Ashes Test.

Cricket Tasmania chief Nick Cummins believes this willingness to bide his time demonstrates his character.

“The thing I observed from day one is he had a driving ambition, that’s what drove him to move to England, he announced from very early on that he had a desire to play for England and he thought that was going to be a four year cycle [from 2017] and so did we, but he was happy to go on that journey,” Cummins said.

“He just always wants to put himself against the best.”

And while some might suggest the Hurricanes have assisted the enemy when it comes to the blockbuster Test series, Cummins has a different school of thought.

Archer’s electric pace and killer yorkers make him a tough proposition in any format.

“He would have done that anyway arguably [shoot to stardom] and we wouldn’t know anything about him so by having him play in Australia, we have given our best players the opportunity to face him.

“We have players, particularly ‘Wadey’ [Matthew Wade] who would understand his game better than anyone else having been his captain.

“None of the English team have been his captain before, the Sussex captain is Luke Wright and Eoin Morgan isn’t playing in the Ashes.

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“‘Wadey” probably knows his game better than the English do, and ‘Griff’ knows his game better than the English do, they’ve only been working with him for a month, we’ve been working with him for two years.

“So while we’ve given a platform to a player who has become a great player, we’ve also given a platform for our players to face someone like him.”