Inside Jofra Archer's four-year England comeback: The gruelling sprinter's training regime he undertook to get 'ripped', what he's really like off the field and why he DOESN'T need to bowl 90mph

It was the latest incident in what has felt at times like a farcical comedy sketch to get the country's premier fast bowler finally back where he belongs. Jofra Archer, 18 months in to a two-year plan to ready him for this winter's Ashes assault, was back bowling with his England team-mates, but not quickly. Or even with the correct hand.

Instead, he had his left-arm spin on the go on the outfield during lunch on the second day of the Edgbaston Test. The ECB have been planning for this moment for a year and a half and insist that their prized asset, hidden away for so long, is primed and ready to unleash hell on opposition batsmen - no matter how he chooses to warm up.

It is touching four and a half years since Archer last played for England in the traditional format of the game, six since he burst onto the international scene by closing out an historic World Cup final win and flooring the Australians on Test debut. 

This is the story of how he made it back to Lord's, to the scene of those 2019 glory days - including a gruelling sprinter's training regime, seven injury lay-offs and why it's not a problem that he's no longer going to be blasting past 90mph every ball.

The ECB have been planning for Thursday's third Test for at least a year, as part of an 18-month plan to get him fit for the Ashes assault this winter. Since playing his last Test, Archer has bowled just 36 overs across three innings of first-class cricket and that, it has been argued, is not ideal preparation for 'five days in the dirt'. But England director of cricket Rob Key is adamant he is ready. 

‘Jofra’s such a talent, he was straight on the money,' says Key. 'Bowling on a slow pitch, with good pace. We can track every single ball, he ain't someone who’s going to forget how to bowl.'

Every ball in domestic cricket is now logged via cameras worn by the umpires, meaning that England selected Archer in the knowledge that he has been replicating his fastest career average speed of 87mph, set in limited-overs internationals in Asia earlier this year.

Whereas Archer's idealised speed twin Mark Wood told MailSport earlier this year that his target was never to drop below the magic90mph mark again at the top level, Archer’s uncomplicated action and rhythmicapproach offers the surprise element when he unleashes his effort ball.

Whereas Wood in this regard represents a modern day Jeff Thomson, England sources hope Archer can become something of a Dennis Lillee, Malcolm Marshall or Richard Hadlee: fast enough for batsmen not to take liberties, but more reliant on skill as the years roll by.

In the 1,596 days between his 13th cap in Ahmedabad and 14th at Lord's this week, Archer has been on a similar fitness journey to Wood. Both have had lengthy periods in which recurring stress fractures of the elbow precluded them from lifting weights, so shifted focus to streamlined running techniques, emulating the efficiency of sprinters by getting as upright as possible in shuttle drills and varying their legwork between 2km and 5km distances.

Romanian deadlifts, Bulgarian squats and plyometric work such as box jumping and skipping are designed to maintain the explosiveness required for fast bowling - an activity that thrusts a force equivalent of 10 times a bowler’s bodyweight through his frame in each delivery stride.

Centrally contracted cricketers’ diets are overseen by the ECB nutritionist Charlie Binns, who dispatches instructions for their daily meal plans to heads of science at teams both here and overseas. Archer’s has been a constant rotation of protein and carbohydrates over the past four years given it has been one long rehab, building up and repairing his muscles.

One of his long-term mates told us: ‘Life’s not fair sometimes, Jof was already ripped. Look at him now!’ His dedication to getting fit has never been in question. He rarely drinks alcohol and has a disciplined approach to fitness work beginning at seven o’clock each morning, stemming back to his Barbados roots.

Before the sun took its effects, Archer would let his five dogs out for exercise, while running on the beach below himself.

Such devotion to recuperation is why the ECB were comfortable with him returning so regularly to the Caribbean. Indeed, in the winter of 2022-23, they dispatched Saqib Mahmood alongside him as they built their workloads in recovery from stress fractures of the back on grass rather than more unforgiving indoor surfaces here in the UK.

It was an indication of Archer’s caring nature that instead of staying at his family home in Saint Phillp, he shared an Airbnb with the Lancashire player.

‘He cares. He’s a very loyal person as well, someone that will always have your back,’ says Mahmood. ‘But in public he never gives much away.’

This introduces the Archer dichotomy. ‘Chilled’ is the most pedalled word in relation to him from inside the England dressing room. Cold could equally be applied when it comes to the image he projects.

Take last week as an example. The size of his smile gives away that no one loves the camaraderie of England’s morning football keepie-up game 'PIG' more. Equally, there was no reaction to the Eric Hollies Stand at Edgbaston roaring his name as, sporting a fluorescent bib, he strode along the boundary edge on 12th man duty later in the day.

Archer is a man who wants his performances to do his talking. During his three years as a columnist with this newspaper, he was intensely private whenever it came to discussion of his injuries and operations.

After breaking down for the first time soon after a marathon 42-over contribution to the first-innings of the first Test defeat in New Zealand, he failed a fitness examination less than one hour before the toss in Johannesburg the following January.

He was reluctant to talk to me about it as we spoke through his Mail Sport column for the next day. But to his credit, he eventually relented, saying: ‘I give 100 per cent every time I go out there and I don't want to go out on the field unless I can guarantee doing that.’

However, there have been times when he has tested the patience of his paymasters who have retained him on a £800,000-a-year contract through it all. Namely, when he put his foot down to honour a £1million deal with Rajasthan in this year’s Indian Premier League. Historically, there has also been his circumventing Covid rules in 2020, resulting in a reprimand and five-day isolation.

But in England captain Stokes, someone with a chequered off-field history himself, he has the staunchest of allies, and the pair are very close. Stokes knows only too well how form can fluctuate and backs his players to the hilt.

For Archer, that was the case earlier this year when he returned figures of 4–0–76–0, the most expensive in the IPL’s 18-year history, amid suggestions that since a stress fracture of the back in 2022, he was now leaning away in delivery stride, pushing the ball into the right-handers and rarely therefore taking it away.

His response was emphatic, producing some of the most menacing spells of his career, including the splattering of in-form India captain Shubman Gill’s stumps. England supporters will be hoping for a repeat dose this week.

One thing is for sure, though - Archer’s reputation will be under scrutiny. As he himself once said: ‘If I play and don't bowl 90mph it's going to be news. If I don't bowl 90mph for long enough it's going to be news. 'If I don't put my left sock on first, it's going to be news.’

Let's hope the headlines have him socking it to India this week.