Jofra Archer isn't who he used to be. Think of him at the turn of the decade: sunk on the ground at Lord's, a newly minted World Cup winner thanks to his Super Over in the final. Soon after, he wore the Rajasthan Royals (RR) pink-and-blue at IPL 2020. He plucked out ten wickets in the powerplay at an economy of 4.34. Among those who have bowled at least 15 overs in a season, that economy rate remains a record.
Look back at that Archer bowling, and you might think "vintage". The word is a double-edged sword. It implies a player has left his best behind. Archer is certainly a long way from the carefree 25-year-old he was back then. He is six years older, his body plagued by elbow injuries, a back injury, a spliced finger.
He missed the IPL - and international cricket - in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, he played five games for Mumbai Indians and had an economy rate of 9.50. He returned for RR after another gap year, but went at 9.47 in 2025.
But even at his most expensive - then, and now - Archer has always looked like the real thing. Fulfilling an archetype: a throwback not to his younger self, but to an era of fast bowling we thought we had left behind. He glides to the crease, elegant and front-on, releasing the ball as an afterthought almost, but just a little but earlier than you would expect.
Batters don't always have time to appreciate his run-up when he is in form. They are busy getting out. In three of his last four IPL games, Archer has taken a wicket with his first ball. It has propelled him to joint-first, alongside Mohammed Shami, on the list of most first-ball wickets at the IPL (five).
His first delivery to Phil Salt, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru opener, says it all, really. He delivered it back-of-a-length, but in an instant, it had snorted up near Salt's chest. All while Salt was ducking out of the way, second-guessing a pull shot, and taking his eyes off the ball.
The secret ingredient here is the high release point. Archer can spear it in fuller than most other fast bowlers and still get it to climb at you. Even a T20 batter of repute, like Salt, can be reduced to looking like a clueless mess.
Still, what has turned Archer lethal is the pace he has rediscovered. In the powerplays this IPL season, 60% of his deliveries have been bowled at more than 140kph. The Archer of new is spearing it in like the Archer of old, extracting extra bounce from the most innocuous of pitches. Batters have responded with a false shot 34% of the time in this opening phase of the game. In other words, you will get it wrong against Archer at least twice an over if he has the new ball.
Archer is the joint-most-successful bowler in the powerplay this year: he has taken seven wickets, the same as Kagiso Rabada. But while Rabada has gone at an economy of 9.92 and an average of 19.85, Archer has kept the same numbers down to 7.85 and 15.71 respectively.
These numbers have made him the leading new-ball bowler at the IPL for the first time in half a decade. Yet, the numbers also tell us a more nuanced story. Six years since Archer dominated the IPL, batters - and data - have made it a much more ruthless tournament. Archer has looked as good as ever and still gone at almost 2.5 runs more per powerplay over than he did in 2020.
Back in 2020, he had better numbers against left-hand batters - an economy of 4.16 and an average of 8.5 - than he did against right-hand batters - 4.42 and 13.16. He would go over the stumps, land it back of a length, and angle it away while inviting batters to chance their arms. He was as good as unplayable when he deployed this tactic to David Warner, across formats. In 2020, he took Warner's wicket six times in seven innings, giving away 32 runs in 45 balls.
Compare it to this year at the IPL: Archer has an economy of 9.4 against left-hand batters, with a control percentage of 78% (against right-hand batters, the numbers drop to 6.9 and 54%). His reduced effectiveness against left-hand batters has, along with a general scoring uptrend, led to a bump in his powerplay figures.
At the same time, Archer must be aware of the upside when you are him: you can always elevate your own bowling beyond the facts. Against Sunrisers Hyderabad on their home turf a week and a half ago, despite Abhishek Sharma's favourable match-up against him - 62 runs from 34 balls, never dismissed - he plucked out the left-hand batter first ball: a short ball rising high, angled away, inducing a catch to backward point.
On Saturday, he will face SRH's three big-hitting left-hand batters again - Abhishek, Travis Head (47 runs off 28 balls, 2 wickets) and Ishan Kishan (72 off 52, no dismissals) - at his own home ground. The numbers tell us despite Archer's recent powerplay success, these match-ups won't be in his favour. History also tells us Archer, with the new ball, can make us forget history, and numbers.
With stats inputs from Namooh Shah and Gaurav Sundararaman. Stats as of April 24, 2026, until before the start of RCB vs GT