Summer of 19 proved to be important for Jofra Archer. And he should be grateful to IPL for all this as the West Indies bowler was so impressive, he was fuming fire and was constantly clicking 150 kph. He troubled the Indians, Australians and even English batsmen to make his way into the England squad.
He was selected in the ODI's squad against Pakistan just before the ICC world cup 2019 and made his debut in May. After not getting selected in the preliminary squad, former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff said he would drop "anyone" from the squad to include Archer.
On 21st May England finalized their squad with Archer included in the 15. He took the new ball during the world cup and bowled the most crucial over of his life (Super over) in the final of the world cup 2019. Later on ICC also included him in team of the tournament.
After the world cup he was selected in the longest format of the game and played his first match on 14th August, 2019 vs the arch rivals Australia. He troubled Smith with his pace and well directed short balls. Archer was unable to get Smith out at Lord's but his bouncer caused a serious problem to Smith and he had to walk off the field only to resume batting latter in the day. And due to concussion he was ruled out for 3rd test. Later in 3rd test the pace gun picked a fifer and helped England sneaking a win and keeping the series alive, thanks to Ben Stokes heroic performance with the bat.
Afterwards in 5th test he again picked up 6 for 62 which helped England to draw the Series. In total he picked 22 wickets at 20.27 in the Ashes series. But before all, he made his first class debut for Sussex and later on made his list A debut against Gloucestershire and overall he has played 32 first class games in which he has taken 153 wickets with an excellent average of 22.98.
On 20th September this year he was rewarded by Ashley Giles, England's Director of Cricket, with one of the 22 central contracts.
Rory Burns was also rewarded with a test deal after his expectationally well performance at the top of the order. The Headingley hero Jack Leach and unused Tom Curran has been rewarded with incremental contact for next season.
The spin duo for England Moeen and Rashid have lost their contract and were given limited over deals. Moeen Ali was dropped from the squad towards the end of group stage in ICC world cup 2019 and played only one match of the Ashes whereas Rashid is regular in white ball cricket but he played his last test against West Indies and was unused against Australia.
Denly, who showed maturity in fifth test against Australia and helped England winning the test match, has awarded with white ball deal.
These contracts work for one year period. And the players who are playing every format of the game will be given special privileges by ECB. Under the structure, players in both formats receive a 'ranking' based on their performances on the pitch, as well as a number of other factors, including off-field contribution, fielding and fitness. Those rankings then correlate with the level of remuneration.
Test Contracts: James Anderson (Lancashire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Rory Burns (Surrey), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Sam Curran (Surrey), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Durham) and Chris Woakes(Warwickshire).
ODI / T20 Contracts: Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Joe Denly (Kent), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Jason Roy (Surrey), Ben Stokes (Durham), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham).*Incremental*Tom Curran (Surrey), Jack Leach (Somerset).
