London : Former England seamer James Anderson said that the hosts, the Three Lions, should play experienced campaigner Jofra Archer in the upcoming third Test of the five-match series against India, which will be played from Thursday, July 10 at the iconic Lord's stadium.
Archer hasn't played Test cricket in more than four years, but recently made a red-ball return at first-class level for Sussex prior to joining up with the England squad for the second Test against India in Birmingham.
England fell to a disappointing 336-run loss to India in that Edgbaston clash to leave the five-match ICC World Test Championship series evenly poised at 1-1, and Anderson believes Archer must play in the third Test that gets underway at Lord's on Thursday.
"You could keep trying to build his overs up and play him later in the series, but it could be too late by then. I think he will play. He played one game for Sussex; he was around the team at Edgbaston and bowled a bit. I just feel like you've got to play him. It's too crucial a game not to," Anderson said as quoted by the ICC official website.
England coach Brendon McCullum stopped short of guaranteeing the return of Archer, but did say the towering right-armer was fit and available for selection. "Jofra is looking fit, he's looking strong, he's looking ready to go, and he'll come into calculations. It's hugely exciting. He's buzzing as well. He's obviously been through his injuries and his time out of Test cricket. We all know what he's capable of achieving in Test cricket and we hope that when the opportunity does arrive for him, he's able to recapture and also improve on what he's been able to do already in that form of the game
The possible inclusion of Archer isn't the only change England are considering to their line-up for the Lord's Test, with fellow fast bowler Gus Atkinson and back-up batter Jacob Bethell also in the running for the crucial contest at the Home of Cricket.
Bethell has only three Test appearances to his name with his most recent match coming against New Zealand at the end of last year, while Atkinson hasn't played since he hurt his hamstring in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in Nottingham in May.
While Bethell's inclusion would provide England with another spin option, McCullum said he won't take the place in the XI of first-choice spinner Shoaib Bashir.
"He's a batting option. He's the next one in if something happens. He wants to keep improving his bowling so that he can obviously impact the game across both the bat and ball. It's not something we'd look at from a tactical point of view to do," McCullum said of Bethell.
England squad for third Test: Ben Stokes (c), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes.