Jofra Archer clapped back in a series of since-deleted tweets after a punter accused him of being “talented” but “never available”.
The tweets, which were captured by The Telegraph UK before being deleted, showed X user George Smith writing that Archer has been a “waste of talent”.
“Don’t know what’s hard to understand. Would respect you more if you just owned it,” the user added.
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That prompted a quick and pointed reply from Archer, who said he will do “whatever” he can to stay healthy and will “simply retire” if that does not end up being good enough.
“Wasting my talent because my talent got me injured?” Archer responded.
“It’s people like you that don’t have a clue how hard it is on my body or how hard it is to even be playing through injuries and surgeries but mention the word respect, keep it ref. I’ll do whatever I can to stay on the park and if it’s not enough I’ll simply retire,” concluded Archer with a heart emoji.
Another user also described Archer’s record of 13 Test caps in five years as a waste, to which the England fast bowler replied with the question: “How much did you play?”.
The exchange came on the five-year anniversary of Archer’s breakout Test debut against Australia at Lord’s, recording figures of 5-91, including 3-32.
A troubling elbow injury has limited Archer’s availability, with the 29-year-old last playing in the Test arena for England in 2021.
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Archer did make his return to the international set-up after being named as part of England’s T20 World Cup squad earlier this year.
The fast bowler is set to play in the white-ball internationals against Australia next month, although he won’t be back in the picture for Test cricket until 2025, as is consistent with comments from England cricket chief Rob Key in April this year.
“The whole plan with Jofra is he is going to play white-ball cricket this summer,” Key told Sky Sports at the time.
“Then hopefully next summer when we play India then the Ashes (in Australia) we get him back for Test cricket.”
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