LON­DON – Bar­ba­di­an Jofra Archer will play his first Test in four and a half years af­ter be­ing named in Eng­land’s start­ing XI for the third Test against In­dia be­gin­ning at Lord’s in Eng­land on Thurs­day.

The 30-year-old fast bowler will re­place Josh Tongue, the high­est wick­et tak­er in the se­ries thus far with 11 wick­ets.

Archer last played a Test match for Eng­land against the same op­po­nents back in 2021, where he snapped four wick­ets com­bined as Eng­land won in Chen­nai and In­dia took the ho­n­ours in Ahmed­abad.

Since mak­ing his de­but in 2019, he has played 13 Tests, grab­bing 42 wick­ets with three five-wick­et hauls.

His in­clu­sion should be a big boost for Eng­land’s bowl­ing at­tack, which was put to the sword by In­dia in the sec­ond Test in a 336-run de­feat, thanks to a marathon knock by In­dia skip­per Shub­man Gill, who broke a pletho­ra of records.

SQUAD

ENG­LAND: Ben Stokes (cap­tain), Zak Craw­ley, ⁠Ben Duck­ett, Ol­lie Pope, Joe Root, Har­ry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Bry­don Carse, Jofra Archer, Shoaib Bashir.

CMC