Archer's return set to headline low-key series

Big Picture

Excuse me while I interrupt myself, as the great Murray Walker once put it, but we've got an international series about to butt into the schedule in South Africa. A nation newly energised by the successful launch of the SA20 will be putting that tournament on ice for a week to host the team that welshed on them two years ago - when what some might term a convenient COVID outbreak forced the last-minute cancellation of England's three pre-Christmas ODIs.

Notwithstanding the fast-approaching World Cup in India this year, and the need for international teams to re-acquaint themselves with the rigours of 50-over cricket, this bizarre stop-over rather epitomises the current moribund state of bilateral international cricket - a format that has long been beholden to the whims of TV contracts, but which has been made to feel extra extraneous in recent months.

England's last ODI series (do you recall any details? Thought not) was a benighted affair in Australia, similarly shoehorned into the schedule as part of the COVID backlog, while this month's explosion of franchise T20 leagues offers the other side of a potential pincer movement on the international game.

Will the crowds flock to Bloemfontein and Kimberley as they have done to Newlands and Paarl these past few weeks? Or will they park their affections and wait for their new favourite tournament to resume? The early indications of ticket sales are not promising. For a country that has openly sacrificed its international calendar in order to pivot to the franchise world, this feels like a significant test case.

There is, however, at least one good reason to fork out the R250 for entry this week. The return of Jofra Archer after nearly two years out of the England set-up is a joyous development, even if South Africa's batters might not feel quite as enthused at the prospect. One of the purest talents in world cricket has been through the wringer since twin elbow operations in 2021, and last year's back stress fracture was a cruelly timed blow, just when it seemed he was stepping up for a comeback.

In his own assessment, he is currently "80 percent fit", but Archer's displays in the SA20 have sent a strong message that his mechanism is no less primed to purr for the indignities he's endured. He's got a big year ahead of him, with another Ashes and World Cup double-header to work towards, and in England terms, it starts right here.

Who knows quite where England are at in general terms, however. As the newly-crowned double World Champions, they can assem- form terminal? Is Dawid Malan the long-term answer at No.3, or just a placeholder while Joe Root focuses on Bazball? Do Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali have another World Cup in them? And can Mott get through a press conference without being obliged to address the elephant who is most emphatically not in the room, Ben Stokes? Just as the T20 World Cup XI came together as if on the back of a packet of Tepal Tea in Pakistan, so you suspect the 50-over side won't have any look of permanence until the final approach in October. now, he just needs runs from whichever berth he so chooses.

South Africa, by contrast, have a pretty good idea of their best XI - their major issue would appear to be settling on a style in which to unleash it. Temba Bavuma, their captain, acknowledged on the eve of the series that England's recent Test exploits would serve as an inspiration of sorts, although seeing as he added that South Africa's interpretation of Bazball might include "blocking the s*** out of it", it sounds as though their tactics are a work in progress.

All eyes will be on Archer, of course, but this series is just a staging post in his gradual return from injury. For Jason Roy, by contrast, there are huge amounts at stake in the coming three games, as he strains every sinew for a semblance of form.

His returns for Paarl Royals in the SA20 have been desperate, with a topscore of 33 in eight matches. Team-mate Jos Buttler, meanwhile, has only been dismissed for less than that total on two occasions - while his stiff-limbed displays in the Australia ODIs realised 39 runs from 61 balls. For seven years, Roy was the totem of Morgan's reboot-

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ed England team, fearlessly gung-ho at the top of the order, and never afraid to fail in his determination that the collective should succeed. More recently, however, he's batted as if a trapdoor has opened up beneath his feet. With the coming man Will Jacks tearing it up in the SA20, if anyone needs a dose of the Bazball mindset, it is Roy. (ESPNCricinfo) ble for these contests with rather more strut than they displayed in a confused home campaign last summer, when Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott were still bedding in as the new captain/coach alliance, and when South Africa not only swiped the T20I Series, but were well placed to pinch the ODIs too when rain interrupted Quinton de Kock's best efforts in the series decider at Headingley. Either way, the settled England side that, by this stage of the 2019 World Cup cycle, was on cruise control is a thing of the past. All manner of questions will need answering in the coming months, and only a handful of them are likely to be addressed in the next three days.

Is Jason Roy's slump in

Either way, the form of Heinrich Klaasen in the SA20 bodes well as an example for the rest of the side to follow, and if de Kock has been short of a few runs, the class he exudes at the top of the order remains permanent. And lest we forget, in this era of cross-pollinated red- and white-ball mindsets, it was an attack spearheaded by Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi that got the better of England's Test team at Lord's last summer - the only match in 10 that Stokes's men have so far lost. A repeat of that showing, and the Free State crowds might just decide that there are legs in the international game yet.

In the spotlight

Despite his conspicuous lack of Test centuries, Temba Bavuma has arguably been South Africa's best red-ball batter for the best part of two years. His white-ball form, on the other end, has been a work in progress, to put it kindly; and as his country's captain, that's a particularly tricky state of affairs.

He did manage to reach three figures against India this time last year, but his form fell off a cliff in the leadup to the T20 World Cup (and the less said about their eventual elimination, the better). Arguably, he would be better off moving up to the top of the order to emulate his T20 role, but right