The wait is Over: Six balls and a lifetime later, Jofra Archer returns with a bang

There was a touch of anxiety in the England camp on Friday morning, when eight of the Test squad set off on Lime bikes for the near four-mile journey from the team's Royal Garden Hotel to Lord's.

The one-day squad did similar to beat the traffic for an ODI against West Indies at the Kia Oval last month, but this was different. Once you are through the picturesque Kensington Gardens, you enter the realm of the main roads, tangling treacherously like competing interests as Paddington becomes Edgware Road.

In May, the NHS reported a surge in A&E admissions for people who had suffered trapped legs in falls, colloquially known as "Lime Bike Leg". Imagine the uproar if an active member of England's XI in this third Test did himself a mischief on the commute, when even Brendon McCullum chose to walk in this morning?

Jofra Archer was one of the "Lime Bike Eight". And maybe it was only right for there to be a hint of jeopardy on his final journey before returning as an active Test cricketer.

When he walked out to bat, it was Archer's first competitive act in England whites in more than 1500 days. And it is no reach to suggest that each day had carried an associated risk, such as simply commuting to work, which might have added to the wait.

It was not just those five days across a 25-month period in which he underwent surgery on his elbow, lower back and hand. Nor the 77 matches he has played in the four-year period since that 13th Test cap in Ahmedabad back in February 2021. Every time Archer got out of bed in the morning during this period, including this Friday, there will have been a fleeting moment of wondering whether he was about to feel the wrong thing in the wrong place.

So, really, what was a bike-ride to work, other than a final journey for Archer: a man already incarcerated by hours of doubt, contained within the months of rehabilitation, and years of uncertainty over getting back to Test cricket. The air on his face as he ventured back to where this all began, against Australia in 2019, weeks after hisSuper Over heroics at the same venue in the World Cup final, must have felt like liberation.

Even more so as he steamed down from the Pavilion End. Out came the first ball, played judderingly by Yashasvi Jaiswal. The crowd, already swelling with pride, swelled even more, yearning to burst.

It was no surprise Archer's follow-up was near perfection. One of his understated super-strengths is unerring accuracy. During his early, pre-England days with Sussex, he could sit into a holding pattern, hammering out the same length, over after over. His former coaches, Jason Gillespie and Jon Lewis, often reiterated the importance of marrying such precision with patience. And though Archer often indulged his frustrations with the odd short ball, he understood the value in testing a batter's substance with his restraint.

His patience has certainly come in for a serious examination. From messaging Ben Stokes "Zim?" ahead of the one-off Test against Zimbabwe earlier this summer, to turning out for his old school team, Foundation, in December 2023 - much to the surprise of men's managing director Rob Key ­ Archer has veered towards the impetuous in the final stages of this comeback.

You can understand why. England's plans to get him back as a three-format bowler have come in two phases - heavily planned and laissez faire.

Ahead of the 2022 Pakistan tour, he bowled for England Lions against the full side in the UAE, the first steps on a roadmap that required a good deal of politicking.

Earlier that year, Key and SA20 commissioner Graeme Smith had struck a gentleman's agreement that, within reason, all centrally contracted England players would be granted an NOC for the inaugural competition. In turn, a stint for Archer with MI Cape Town was worked out for the new year, which led neatly into a series against South Africa that marked Archer's first England appearance in close to two years.

Everything was on course until another stress fracture in his elbow ruled him out of the 2023 Ashes. From that point on, England decided to be less proactive and more reactive. Though the coaches and medical staff hive-minded a PDF on Archer's next steps - common practice for all their bowlers - it was only after regular assessments, at each of his homes in Brighton and Barbados, that the next plan was put in place.

The 2024 T20 World Cup was a personal success, even if England were as underwhelming as a team could be in reaching the semi-finals. A fixture against Scotland in Barbados brought Archer's two worlds together, and felt, outwardly, like a springboard. Cheered on by kids from his former school, he admitted to tearing up, even if the game ended as a no-result.

ODIs against Australia later that summer brought the enticing prospect of an Ashes series to the fore. It felt, at the very least, that a corner had been turned: even when Archer returned to the IPL with a thumb injury, the light at the end of the tunnel was illuminating the final steps.

He missed the ODIs against West Indies at the start of this summer, but stepped up his bowling loads. Barring that text to Stokes, he bided his time, ticked a box with a first County Championship match in four years for Sussex against Durham, and did enough in the intervals during the second Test at Edgbaston last week to show England's hierarchy he was ready. On the eve of the match, he gave his captain such a beasting in the nets that Stokes was late for his captain's pre-match press conference, as he went back in for another hit.

Who knows what would have happened had Bashir not been there. Archer might have run all the way through the Lord's Grandstand, into another dimension. And those in the ground who had cheered his return, then hugged each other at this crowning moment, would have followed.

The beauty of true fast bowling is not about destroying stumps or ending batters, but creating worlds in an instant. And wherever Archer had ended up - whether he'd stopped at square leg or not at all, he was at the centre of it.

The visceral screams. The straining of his face. The thrusting of his limbs, as if more outlets were needed for his emotions. His gold chains bounced on his reinforced chest and shoulders, as if they were extensions of the man, rather than the impediments they were first made out to be when he arrived on to the international scene.

It's worth noting there are now two chains around Archer's neck. In ancient Egypt, the wealthy would be buried with their gold, which they would then exchange for passage into the afterlife. Such has been Archer's toil in this realm already, the extra one has the feel of a souvenir of his journey through purgatory.

Part of Archer "injury-proofing" his body has been a more muscular physique. His trunk is thicker, his upper body more welter- than lightweight.

As a result, the way he delivers the ball has changed. Where once his trajectory came over his right shoulder, with the smoothest path from A to B, his release-point now comes from slightly further out. It's not a conscious choice from Archer but a case of his body adapting to new restrictions, and finding a way to avoid the pain.

Undoubtedly, Archer has lost the whippiness of his first incarnation, along with the ability to get front-on, and come over the top of his front leg in the manner that he used to. And yet it took him just four balls to unleash the fastest delivery of the series so far.

He would deliver another close to it - 93.3mph, third ball of his second over. By the end of his initial spell of 1 for 16, he was averaging 89.8mph, the third-fastest new-ball spell of five or more overs since 2006.

Having watched the previous delivery go by in a flash, Karun Nair barely moved his feet to this one. An impulsive twitch brought the inside half of his bat into play, which just about saved him from the nip down the slope that had done for Jaiswal. This delivery had designs on Nair's front pad, maybe even some stumps.

By now, the near-30,000 spectators inside Lord's were transfixed. Just as Jasprit Bumrah had demanded their attention earlier in the day, here was Archer, keeping them on the edge of their seats, with only that familiar shuffle - head down, back to the top of his mark - allowing them a moment to lean back and catch their breath.

The nagging length was there, his pace with the new Dukes ball was amplifying every available bit of movement and drama. This is why so many fans kept faith with the idea of Archer. That he could come again, eliciting bygone brilliance here and now.

It is also why the ECB has invested so much in him. The central contracts, the round-the-clock care, the expertise of industry-leading surgeons such as Rowan Schouten (back) and Roger van Riet (elbow), and the leeway to indulge home comforts and, eventually, cede to his forceful request to enter the recent edition of the IPL.

That caused some alarm. The IPL's stipulation on entering 2025's auction or risk being banned from the next two editions was, understandably, too big a risk for Archer, even if the ECB wanted him fresh for as much or as little of this India series and the winter's Ashes as possible. The masterplan was into his final throes - but was Archer getting cold feet?

Far from it. Sure, he was wary, as much about his luck as history and his age. But the 30-year-old's desire to get back to Test cricket has never dimmed.

The kid at home in Barbados, posting constantly about the cricket he was watching, had become an adult posting intermittently about the cricket he was watching. Stokes bit back at the suggestion that Archer had been kept around for the Headingley Test in order to persuade him to keep the format on his agenda. "Look, he didn't need any more reason to find any more desire," Stokes said, and he should know, having never stopped checking in on Archer through his years of rehab.

Rightly or wrongly, Archer also carries guilt. Speaking during last year's T20 World Cup, he revealed that not playing made him feel like a burden. "I've seen a few comments, people saying 'he's on the longest paid holiday they've ever seen'," he said of barbs from keyboard warriors in his mentions and comments.

Here, in real life, there were no haters.

Can you really come back if you have never been away?

Since Ahmedabad 2021, Archer has played 41 matches for England. All have come in white-ball cricket, and featuring in two international tournaments in that period skewers the notion of one returning from the wilderness. Nair, the man who placed meaningful bat on ball for this final delivery of the over, has more of a claim for that narrative.

There was a moment, when that final ball was gathered at midwicket, that the crescendo-ed whoops that had greeted Archer's run-up tailed off into a drop of silence.

It was a pause to catch your breath. A moment to glance at the scoreboard and realise Archer's first over was done. A realisation that now, this Dukes, in other hands, won't dance as smooth, sing as sweet, or sting as sharp.

All those emotions from all those people soon joined as one again, as they coo-ed for an encore from Archer who, simply by collecting his cap off umpire Sharfuddoula, had already exited the stage.

Archer would bowl nine more overs, closing out the day with 1 for 22, to finish as England's most economical and threatening bowler. Like Bumrah, a singular threat, a singular thrill. But unlike Bumrah, a vindication of the excitement and anticipation that had been underpinned by trepidation.

This is a new Archer. One we have seen building out in the open in patches, but behind the scenes for years.

In an era when most blockbuster Hollywood productions are modern remakes of beloved classics, it is not unfair to suggest that Archer will be seen as a peak example of this trend. He is not quite the original, and probably never will be.

But he remains compelling theatre, heart-warmingly brilliant and, now, an embodiment of spirit. If you need to know how deep a man must go to reclaim what he really wants, you'd do well to chart his return to the Test stage.

And that's just from one over.