'It's abuse': England cop Ashes warning over Jofra Archer
West Indies legend Michael Holding says England need to be mindful of Jofra Archer’s workload, likening his heavy usage in the second Ashes Test to ‘abuse’.
Archer terrorised Australia’s batsmen at Lord’s, hitting Steve Smith on the neck and Marnus Labuschagne on the grille of his helmet.
But the fact he bowled 22 of the 75 overs on the final day has left Holding very concerned.
The former tearaway quick says Archer will inevitably break down injured or lose some of his pace unless England rethink his workload.
“Archer bowled a third of all the overs bowled. That’s a spinner’s quota,” he told The Independent.
“If you keep bowling him like this you will lose his 96mph delivery.”
Holding said England should take note of South African speedster Kagiso Rabada’s back troubles.
At 24 years old, the 7000-plus overs Rabada has bowled in Test cricket is more than anyone else in history at his age.
“It’s abuse,” Holding said. “When I was bowling, we had three other quicks just as fast. We could share the burden.
“[Archer] is obviously very fit...but it is not sustainable for England to use him like this in every match.”
Aussies won’t seek bouncer retribution
Justin Langer is adamant this Ashes won't turn into a battle of the bouncers as it emerged Archer may have had retribution in mind when unleashing hell at Lord's.
The drawn second Test was a short-pitched shootout in London, where Archer was in his element on debut, and the expectation is there will be more of the same when the series continues in Leeds on Thursday.
However, Australia coach Langer made it clear his team have more interest in retaining the urn with a win rather than getting "caught up in an emotional battle of who's going to bowl the quickest bouncers".
Batsmen from both sides wore plenty of bruising blows on the body, arm and head at the home of cricket - the most frightening of which came when Archer struck Smith.
Tim Paine joked last week that "a bad night on (video game) Fortnite" would be the only way to fire up Archer but it seems a bouncer barrage from Pat Cummins may have done the job.
"I know for a fact he was counting (the number of short balls)," Jimmy Anderson said on his Tailenders podcast.
"He mentioned that he saw a pitch map of Cummins to him and there were two length balls and the rest were in the short zone. He obviously was aware of that."
with AAP
