Jofra Archer: England’s brand of cricket remains the same despite T20 loss
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Jofra Archer insisted England will not be pressing the panic button despite a new white-ball era under Brendon McCullum starting with a comprehensive T20 defeat against India in Kolkata. After a lacklustre batting display from England, India withstood a four-over burst from a revved-up Archer to race to their target of 133 with seven wickets and 43 balls to spare at Eden Gardens.
While Archer took two for 21, Tilak Varma top-edged his first delivery agonisingly over Phil Salt and there were other instances of tough catches going down or the ball dropping in front of fielders. Archer accepted the result might not have been altered had fortune favoured England but the fast bowler believes the message from McCullum will be to simply go again in the second T20 in Chennai on Saturday.
“Their batters were extremely lucky,” Archer said. “A lot of balls went up in the air and didn’t go to hand. Probably next time, they all go to hand and they’re 40 for six. I wish we could have caught them. “Maybe we would have lost anyway, but that would have made us drag it (back) a bit more and they would have won it in the 17th or 18th over. I don’t mind losing, but I want to fight for it.
“We just want the guys to keep their head up. This happens a lot in India, especially in the IPL (Indian Premier League), the batters and bowlers go hard and we were just on the unlucky side of it. “But nothing changes. Yes (McCullum is the) coach but we still carry on. He just lets us do what we want to do. Nothing changes. The coaches change but the brand of cricket always remains the same.”.
