Archer was not initially among the England players who will be up for sale in the mega-auction, which was reportedly a move by the ECB to manage his workload. The fast-bowler did not play in this year's IPL in order for the ECB to more effectively manage his workload ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup. In the 2023 edition, Archer suffered a recurrence of an elbow stress fracture while playing for Mumbai Indians, which led to a period of over a year on the sidelines.

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However, under new IPL rules, foreign players who do not enter the mega auction will not be eligible to participate in an IPL tournament for following two years. Thus, had Archer not entered the auction for next year's tournament, he would not have been able to play in the IPL until 2028.

He was subsequently included as part of the England cohort to go under the hammer, reportedly after discussions with the ECB about granting him a non-objection certificate. On day one of the auction, Archer was bought by Rajasthan Royals for INR 12.5 crore.

What could Archer's IPL selection mean for his England availability?

If Archer does not pull out of the tournament, it would mean he would be unavailable to play for Sussex in the early rounds of the 2025 County Championship. Part of England's plans for Archer to be back playing Test cricket for the 2025/26 Ashes include re-introducing him to red ball cricket next year.

Archer has not played a Test match since February 2021, and he hasn't played any first-class cricket since May 2021. Playing in the IPL means he would not return to the UK until the end of May, limiting his opportunities to play in the Championship as the T20 Blast takes full focus, and before England's Test match series against India begins on June 20. England do not play anymore Test cricket following the conclusion of their series against India until the first Ashes Test match in December.

In an interview earlier this year, England men's performance director Rob Key revealed the plan was for Archer to be back playing Test cricket in 2025. "The whole plan with Jofra is he's going to play white-ball cricket for this [2024] summer, and going into the winter, and then hopefully next summer, when we play India and then on to the Ashes, we get him back for Test cricket."

Key and Brendon McCullum will now be faced with a dilemma over whether to bring Archer straight back in to Test action with little warm-up in the County Championship, or to bring him in part-way through the series, limiting the Tests he can play in preparation for the Ashes series after four years on the sidelines of the format.

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