Jofra Archer turned up for his post-match interview at Lord’s with BBC Test Match Special wearing a peculiar hat. The story of why involves a longstanding bet, which Archer won for his captain simply by being named in the teamsheet.
At the toss, TMS commentator Jonathan Agnew turned up to interview Ben Stokes wearing a blue pork pie hat bearing an MCC trim. “Jofra Archer back in the side, which is something that not everybody thought might happen,” Agnew said to Stokes. “We had a bet, didn’t we? Do you like this hat?”
“Unfortunately the colour is a little bit off, but I’ll take my ‘I told you so’ moment from, what was it, three years ago?” replied Stokes.
Test Match Special explained that, after the Hobart Test in the 2021/22 Ashes, Agnew had bet Stokes that Archer wouldn’t play another match. At that point, it had been less than a year since the express quicks last game, but a series of injuries, in particular stress fractures to his elbow and back, had limited him to just a handful of white-ball appearances since then.
However, England had targetted 10 back-to-back Tests against India and Australia as the perfect time to prime Archer for a comeback and, having proven his fitness for Sussex in the County Championship, he unleashed, regularly topping 90mph and taking five wickets in the game, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Washington Sundar twice, and Rishabh Pant once, bowled on the final morning.
Archer then turned up for his interview with Agnew wearing the hat Stokes had won in his bet. “You must have thought over these four years about coming back and perhaps not coming back, and so to be part of a game like this might really mean a lot,” Agnew said.
“I never thought about not coming back, that was just you,” Archer replied.
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