Following England's nervy T20 World Cup win over Italy, Mark Butcher has said that Jofra Archer must find movement with the ball to lead England through the Super Eights.
Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast, Butcher highlighted Archer's struggles in the tournament so far. The England quick went at more than 10 runs per over in his first two outings against Nepal and Scotland, and conceded 35 runs off his four overs against Italy despite taking two wickets in his first over.
"The ball doesn't seem to be doing anything out of his hand," said Butcher. "He's bowling with good pace, but even with the full-ish deliveries, there's no hint of the ball shaping either in or out. Nor does there seem to be any regular seam movement, whether nipping into right-handers or away from them. He seems to be bowling very straight at the moment.
"It was quite stark actually, watching the India-Pakistan game the other day, just how much the likes of [Japrit] Bumrah and even Hardik Pandya were getting that new white ball to do something through the air or off the pitch. Perhaps that's something that's just a little bit lacking from his [Archer's] game at the moment. Whether or not the conditions have not been conducive at all to that, it's rare to see a brand new white Kookaburra not do anything at all, just be completely gun barrel straight.
"One of the great advantages that he has is pace, but it's also a massive disadvantage if people are lining you up and the ball is not doing anything because it disappears for six quite easily."
England beat Italy by 24 runs in their final group stage game on Monday (February 16), but were given a brief scare in the chase by Ben Manenti and Grant Stewart. However, the result secured their place in the Super Eights, which they will begin against Sri Lanka on Sunday (February 22).
"I'm hoping they're just saving their peak for the Super Eights, semi-finals and the finals," said Butcher. "I think one of the issues thus far has been that this is not a wildly experienced team in terms of T20 [tournament] cricket. Not when you move away from the likes of Buttler, Rashid, Harry Brook, I suppose is not massively over-blessed in terms of experience in T20 cricket either, and Jofra Archer. Those four to this point have not exactly pulled up any trees...
"It's one of those things where you're less concerned about the senior players because you feel as though it's fair enough as long as they peak, then things can only get better. The difficulty is that you've only got so many, probably up to four, players with Jacks, Banton, Bethell, Brook, guys who are not wildly experienced in these tournaments in this format. They need that little bit of a boost, a little bit of assistance by having the big players around them making them look good until they're ready. That hasn't happened up to this point, but fingers crossed it does."
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