Former Australia seamer Ryan Harris has taken aim at struggling England pacer Jofra Archer, advising him to remove his iconic gold chain to regain pace and form in the ongoing Ashes down under.
The 30-year-old Archer had only bagged three wickets in two Tests and came under the scanner during the day-night Test at the Gabba where he was seen arriving with a pillow on day three in the dressing room before his sledging duel with Steve Smith backfired during an eight-wicket defeat.
Archer’s pace and vigour progressively dropped across the four bowling innings on this tour, prompting Harris to launch a dig at the English paceman’s ‘wrecked’ body.
“If he takes it off, he might be able to bowl quicker. We all know you’ve got a bit of money, mate, take it off, will ya? He came out with 60 runs to go and pulled the handbrake off which, from everyone’s point of view, was so disappointing. But what we also have to think about is this bloke hasn’t played any red-ball cricket, Test cricket, back-to-back cricket for a number of years,” Harris was quoted as saying by Sydney Moring Herald on SEN Radio.
“Any cricket he has played has been four-over stuff, or the odd one-dayer. His body is wrecked, we know that. He’s got a bad elbow. It’s bloody hard to bowl fast, and you have got to practice it, and do a lot of it,” Harris added.
Harris also slammed Archer’s decision to bring along a pillow to the Brisbane dressing room for the pink-ball Test, insisting that it was something he would not have ever done.
“And if I ever did, [coach] Darren Lehmann would have told me where to go, so would have [captain] Michael Clarke and the rest of the team,” the former South Australia seamer said.
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Australia’s legendary Ricky Ponting had recently lambasted Archer after he had “just embarrassed himself, and he embarrassed his team the other night”.
“To bowl his fastest spell ever in Test cricket, when Australia’s chasing 60 … it [his bowling at high speed] has been there the whole time, it’s been up his sleeve, and England have needed him to do it, and he hasn’t been willing to do it,” Ponting had said on Thursday on SEN.
“Day three, when they needed him to do it, he rocks up with his pillow under his arm, and that was always going to be a bad day for England from that moment.
“As soon as anyone saw that, it was going to be, ‘OK, there’s their mindset for the day. They’re just going to rock up and Australia’s going to fall over, and we’ll bowl them out’,” remarked Ponting.
