England Cricket Team's Jofra Archer Sidelined From Ashes Due to Repeat Elbow Stress Fracture: The Guardian Report.

Jofra Archer will miss another summer of cricket as scans have shown a recurrence of a stress fracture in his right elbow, also ruling him out of a second successive Ashes series. The ECB confirmed the news in the squad announcement for next month's one-off Test against Ireland, which sees Jonny Bairstow returning after recovering from a triple leg break and taking over the wicketkeeping duties from Ben Foakes, who has been left out completely.

Unfortunately, it's the third time that Archer has suffered this particular injury. It first forced him to leave England's tour of South Africa in the 2019-20 season and then kept him out of the 2021 T20 World Cup and last winter's Ashes in Australia. He then missed last summer's games with a stress fracture in his lower back. Despite playing for Surrey's Second XI in June of this year, Archer has only managed to play in four competitive games in the UK since September 2020 as a result of injury.

Rob Key, the ECB's managing director for men's cricket, said, "It has been a frustrating and upsetting period for Jofra Archer. He was making good progress until a recurrence of the elbow injury, which kept him out for an extended period previously. We wish him the best of luck with his recovery. I'm sure we will see Jofra back to his best and winning games for England, whatever the format. Hopefully, sooner rather than later."

Despite a minor groin strain that forced him to miss the final three days of Lancashire's County Championship draw with Somerset, Jimmy Anderson has been named in the 15-player squad. Also returning is Mark Wood, who is currently on paternity leave in anticipation of the birth of his first child. The rest of the seam options come from Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts, Chris Woakes, and Ollie Robinson.

Ollie Pope has been chosen as vice-captain for the one-off Test, marking the first time that anyone has officially filled the role since Ben Stokes became captain last April. The timing of the announcement seems significant, as the concerns over the state of Stokes' left knee increase the chances of his being off the field for some, possibly even all, of the Ireland Test. Earlier this year, Stuart Broad had identified Pope as a potential future captain: "He's grown so much in the last year, the way he operates, the confidence and responsibility he's been given. There's no doubt you can see him as a future England captain."

The squad includes Dan Lawrence, whose inclusion makes Foakes' absence feel all the more brutal, despite Lawrence's greater versatility across the batting order. Lawrence, who was also in the group that travelled to New Zealand in February, has expressed his desire to work his way back into the team, which he last represented in the West Indies in March 2020. "If that's my best way in, I'd definitely give it a crack. I'd bat No 9 for them. I would literally bat anywhere if they said that's where you need to bat to get in."