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Watch: Archer's lethal deliveries trouble Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan in MI's practice session before RCB tie
The franchise shared a video of Archer's very first over in MI colours at a practice session, with the caption, "Post bowling video Admin."
Jofra Archer is a rare and special talent in white-ball cricket. Hence, Mumbai Indians, despite the odds and the criticism, spent a whopping amount of INR 8 crore in the 2022 auction, knowing that he would be unavailable for entire IPL season that year with his major elbow injury concern only to unleash him alongside Jasprit Bumrah, forming one of the deadliest pace combination in T20s, in IPL 2023. While Bumrah's injury concern has denied MI of that dream, Archer is finally all set to make his debut for the franchise when they face Royal Challengers Bangalore in their season opener at the M Chinnaswamy stadium. (GT vs CSK Live Score, IPL 2023)
Ahead of the match on April 2, the franchise shared a video of Archer's very first over in MI colours at the practice session in Mumbai, with the caption, "Post bowling video Admin" - Presenting Jofra's first over in MI colours."
In the video, Archer is seen going up against MI openers Rohit Sharma, the captain and Ishan Kishan. Both the batters seem to struggle against the fiery pace of Archer. In the three deliveries either batters faced, Rohit mistimed one of his shots, while Ishan was beaten twice by the shorter deliveries.
Mumbai had a forgettable season in 2022 where they had finished at the bottom-most position in the points table with four wins in 14 matches, standing below fellow IPL heavyweights Chennai Super Kings, who incurred a similar fate.
Mumbai's biggest challenge will be to fill the gap of Bumrah, who has been absent from cricket since the home series against Australia before the T20 World Cup with his recurring back injury. However, with Archer joining in, it will be much a relief for the five-time winners.
"We will see tonight (in a practice match). He's playing tonight. One of the things about the international players is that they need the freedom to move around a bit. All of them have been playing cricket. Jofra obviously is coming off a major injury, he has been playing quite a bit of cricket lately, which is good. He's in a good space. He's ready to get up there and perform, which, for us, is a good place to be in. We will see tonight how he goes," head coach Mark Boucher had said.
