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Electric Archer lights up India classic to justify Test return for England

Fast bowler displayed all the attributes which set him apart from others to deliver optimism for rest of series and Ashes tour

The electric return of Jofra Archer in England’s tight victory against India at Lord’s set straight a couple of narratives that arose during his four-year absence from Test cricket. It is often said that a player’s stock can rise when they are sat on the sidelines – yet sometimes, in some quarters, the reverse can also be true.

Chief among them was a reminder that England possess a special fast bowling talent here, Archer displaying the attributes that set him apart from others. As the man himself confidently put it regarding the 89.6mph beauty to Rishabh Pant that angled in, nipped away and gave the snappers the stumplosion they craved: “I guess it was just a matter of when, if I kept bowling like that. I can’t imagine many left-handers getting away with it.”

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England call up veteran spinner Liam Dawson to replace Bashir for fourth Test with India

  • Hampshire bowler last played Test cricket in 2017

  • Rest of the squad unchanged for Old Trafford clash

Liam Dawson has been added to England’s squad for the fourth Test against India, ending an eight-year exile from the longest format in international cricket.

Last month the Hampshire all-rounder made a successful return to England’s T20 side after a three-year absence and, with Shoaib Bashir forced to pull out of the India series with a broken finger, he has finally been rewarded for his excellent red-ball form in recent seasons: 49 first-class wickets in 2023 followed by 54 in 2024, by a considerable margin his two most successful campaigns.

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Australia bowl West Indies out for 27 as Boland takes hat-trick and Starc joins 400 club

  • Third Test, day three: Australia 225 and 121; West Indies 143 and 27

  • Australia wrap up 176-run victory and claim 3-0 series sweep

Mitchell Starc has produced one of the all-time great bowling spells and Scott Boland taken a hat-trick as Australia bowled West Indies out for 27 to win the third Test.

On a historic day in Jamaica, Australia’s quicks ran riot to wrap up a 176-run victory and claim a 3-0 series sweep of the Frank Worrell Trophy.

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Cameron Green plays lone hand as Australia batting woes worsen in West Indies

  • Third Test, day two: Australia 225 and 99-6; West Indies 143 at stumps

  • No 3 batter hits 42 not out after Sam Konstas falls for a duck

Australia’s selectors have four Sheffield Shield matches to sort their openers for the Ashes, after the team’s top order crumbled under lights in Jamaica.

The tourists went to stumps on night two at Sabina Park at 99-6 in their second innings, leading West Indies by 181 but with the game firmly in the balance.

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Lord’s was the scenery: art and beauty of West Indies’ historic first win 75 years ago | Barney Ronay

The Victory Test against England has been immortalised in calypso song but is going unremarked during this series

“So at Lord’s was the scenery / Bound to go down in history.” Why isn’t Lord’s cricket ground marking the diamond anniversary of the Victory Test? We are now almost exactly 75 years on from West Indies’ deeply resonant first win at motherland HQ, two years after the first Windrush crossing, hats in the air, Rae and Stollmeyer, cricket, lovely cricket, a rush of blood in the dry yonic centre of the great colonial game, all of that.

It would be wrong to say Lord’s carries no trace of this occasion. Wander around its fragrant perimeters during the India Test, past the gated lawns, the scrolling bars and food courts, and you might spot an embossed brick in the wall of historical moments, just down from Wangfrott Major taking the inaugural village cup and the opening of the media centre: 1950 West Indies win their first Test at Lord’s.

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Archer back to face India at Lord’s as Wood makes surprise bid to return in fifth Test

  • Archer only change for third Test as Tongue drops out

  • Fellow pace bowler Wood targeting final Test at The Oval

Jofra Archer will start his first Test match in more than four years after being named as the only change in the England team to face India in the third Test at Lord’s on Thursday.

Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse are both retained after the defeat to India at Edgbaston which squared the series 1-1, with Josh Tongue making way for Archer.

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The Spin | Dear cycling: a letter and a warning from cricket’s golden free-to-air summer in 2005

The last Tour de France on ITV is a stark reminder of the final terrestrial Test summer

Dear cycling, hello from 2005. It’s dusty back here, piles of unloved pagers, a cityscape of VHS towers and chest freezers packed with Turkey Twizzlers.

It’s been a strange sort of summer – switchbacking in mood. On 6 July, London won the rights to hold the 2012 Olympics, a last-minute heist from under the Parisian nose; the next day terrorists murdered 52 people on the London transport network. The country was in a state of high alert, but the Australian cricket team, who had landed in early June, stayed to play in the Ashes. I’ll always be grateful for that decision – it turned out to be not only our last summer, but also our greatest.

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Jofra Archer’s return gives England a headache with India series on the line | Ali Martin

The fast bowler may be underdone but the national side can’t afford to ignore him – the question is who makes way

Tradition usually dictates that after a batting lineup fails in the manner that England’s largely did on a flat one at Edgbaston – four ducks among the top six, just two men passing 50, 157.4 overs batted to India’s 234 – a bowler or two must pay the price.

Given the short turnaround, and with admittedly some merit after shipping over 1,000 runs in a home Test for just the second time in history, this will come to pass at Lord’s on Thursday. All signs point to Jofra Archer’s return. A risk? Undoubtedly. After four years of injury struggles and a slow burn of a comeback in the white-ball formats, a mere 18 overs of priming in county cricket feels instinctively skinny.

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Jofra Archer poised to make England Test comeback against India at Lord’s

  • Brendon McCullum calls for pitch with pace and bounce

  • Injury-plagued bowler last played for Test team in 2021

Jofra Archer is poised to make his long-awaited comeback in the third Test against India this week, with Brendon McCullum, the England head coach, calling for Lord’s to deliver a pitch that has pace, bounce and sideways movement.

Archer, 30, joined the England squad at Edgbaston last week but was held back from what became a crushing 336-run defeat by Shubman Gill’s tourists. And now at one-all in the series, England’s seam attack seems likely to be refreshed amid a strong hint from McCullum that this means Archer’s return.

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Australian openers fail to fire again as West Indies fight back in second Test

Sam Konstas and Usman Khawaja’s fledgling opening partnership is on shaky ground after Australia’s openers were again dismissed cheaply against the West Indies. Australia slumped to 12-2 at stumps on day two of the second Test in Grenada, leading by just 45 after bowling the Windies out for 253.

Konstas was left shattered after he was out for a duck, playing on to his stumps from a Jayden Seales delivery. The 19-year-old, in just his fourth Test, looked better in the first innings with 25, after scores of 3 and 5 during the opening match of the series in Barbados.

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Carey and Webster half-centuries steady Australia after more batting woe in West Indies

  • Second Test, day one: Australia win toss and make 286 at stumps

  • Tourists had slumped to 93-4; Steve Smith dismissed for three

Wickets tumbled either side of Alex Carey and Beau Webster’s 112-run stand as Australia were dismissed for 286 at stumps on day one of the second Test against the West Indies.

Alzarri Joseph’s 61-4 helped restrict Australia, who are gunning for an unassailable 2-0 series lead in Grenada. The tourists were clearly struggling at 93-4 at lunch but Webster (60) and Carey (63) combined to restore some order in the second session as the tourists reached 209-5 at tea.

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