By winning the second Test at Old Trafford against West Indies, England have levelled the three-match series 1-1. The hosts lost the series opener at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton by six wickets, but they came back strongly and defeated the visitors by 113-runs in Manchester.
The Joe Root-led side performed outstandingly well in the second Test in all departments. However, the fans did miss speedster Jofra Archer, who was banned from playing in the Test for his breach of COVID-19 protocols after the completion of the Southampton game.
The protocols suggest that the players and staff are supposed to only stop at the designated stations during their travels, but as per the Daily Mail, Archer didn’t directly go from Southampton to Manchester (the venue of the second Test). The right-arm paceman decided to take a diversion to visit his home in Sussex where he met his girlfriend. Archer stayed there for an hour or so before driving to Manchester to join the rest of his teammates.
Archer did issue his apology, and now he is ready to join the England squad for the third and final Test of ‘raise the bat’ series. But in a shocker, the 25-year-old has revealed that he received dreadful abuse on social media for his mistake.
“Some of the abuse I have taken over the past few days on Instagram has been racist, and I have decided enough is enough. I will not allow anything to pass, so I have forwarded my complaints to the ECB, and that will go through the correct process,” Archer told DailyMail.
Archer said that he has admitted his blunder and apologised to everyone for it, but he did not commit any crime.
“Yes, I made a mistake in not driving to Old Trafford directly from Southampton between matches. But people make mistakes.
“I know what I did was an error of judgement, and I have suffered the consequences of that. I accept I put the other guys at risk. I did not follow the advice and therefore apologised to my team-mates, to the West Indies team and to everyone involved in the series. But I haven’t committed a crime, and I want to start feeling myself again,” the Sussex bowler added.
The Bridgetown-born pacer further stated that in order to return to the cricket field after being put to five days in isolation, he needs to be 100% mentally fit.
“This whole week has been extremely tough, and to spend five days in isolation has given me a lot of thinking time. To be stuck in a hotel room in Manchester was hard. I found I was struggling for motivation in the circumstances when it came to returning to bowling in the nets. Now I need to be 100 per cent mentally right so that I can throw myself into my cricket this week,” concluded Archer.
