Mumbai Indians rejoice as Jofra Archer returns from injury a day before IPL 2023 auction
The big news of Jofra Archer's return from injury comes just one day before the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 mini-auction.
England speedster Jofra Archer finally makes a return to competitive cricket after being sidelined for over a year due to an elbow injury. Archer, who has not played a single ODI since March 2021, has been named in England's ODI squad for the upcoming South Africa series starting next month. Archer has also been signed by the Cape Town Indians franchise for the South Africa T20 league, which starts in early January.
The big news of Archer's return from injury comes just one day before the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 mini-auction, and it also brings a sigh of relief to heavyweights Mumbai Indians, who dearly missed Archer's services in the previous season.
Both Mumbai Indians and MI Cape Town took to Twitter to celebrate Archer's return.
Archer, who earlier represented Rajasthan Royals, was bought by Mumbai on Day 2 of the IPL 2022 mega auction for a whooping price of ₹8 crore. Although Archer's participation was uncertain at that moment, both fans and experts hailed the brave decision by Mumbai, who were excited to see arguably the greatest pacers of the current era - Jasprit Bumrah and Archer - form a lethal combo.
Archer later revealed he would be unavailable for the entire season as he was still recovering from the elbow injury.
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Mumbai had a rough outing in the previous edition and would count on both Archer and Bumrah apart from their star trio Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma, and Suryakumar Yadav to change their fortune this time around. The team had finished bottom of the points table, winning just four matches out of 14.
Ahead of the auction, Kieron Pollard was the biggest name the franchise released. The Windies all-rounder announced his retirement from IPL and will now assist the franchise as batting coach in the upcoming season.
Meanwhile, Mumbai will enter the auction with a purse value of ₹20.55 crore and can fill at least three overseas slots.
