Jofra Archer to join England Lions squad in UAE as rehab ramps up

Jofra Archer’s rehabilitation from long-term injury will step up a notch next month when he joins up with the England Lions squad for their training camp in the UAE.

The pace bowler has not played any form of cricket since July 2021 and missed the English summer with a stress fracture of his lower back, having also suffered with a long-term elbow injury.

Archer’s protracted will travel for training alongside fellow bowlers Saqib Mahmood and Brydon Carse, who are also working back from injury, and five members of the Test squad who are not involved in the T20 World Cup – James Anderson, Jamie Overton, Ollie Robinson, Jack Leach and Will Jacks.

The teenage leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed has been called up as part of the 15-man squad that will travel to the UAE on 6 November, before taking on Ben Stokes’s senior England side in a three-day match that serves as a warm-up for the Test series in Pakistan.

Leicestershire prospect Ahmed, 18, has long been touted for international honours and ended the county season with a maiden five-for and a maiden century in the same match against Derbyshire. He netted with England’s limited-overs side at Old Trafford this summer, where he was treated to a one-on-one training session with Adil Rashid.

Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Matthew Potts and Matthew Fisher, all of whom have played Test cricket in 2022, are the highest profile names in the Lions squad. The Durham quick Potts was considered unlucky not to make the full Test squad after a highly impressive start to his England career – taking 20 wickets in five appearances – and has a chance to prove that decision was wrong when the two teams face off between 23-25 November.

His fellow seamer Fisher, who made his Test debut in Barbados in March,