LONDON: England fast bowler Jofra Archer has said the team are strong enough to step up at the Twenty20 World Cup even without him and all-rounder Ben Stokes and hoped their opponents would lose sleep over facing Eoin Morgan’s side.

Archer ruled himself out of the World Cup in August after a recurrence of a stress fracture in his right elbow, while Stokes was not included in the squad as he extends his break from cricket to focus on his mental health.

England head coach Chris Silverwood included batter Liam Livingstone and fast bowler Tymal Mills as the replacements in the squad for the World Cup, which will be held in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from Sunday.

“Let’s face it, we have been successful for so long, top of the world rankings as a result, and have players that can dominate on any stage,” Archer wrote in his Daily Mail column on Wednesday.

“Yes, myself and Ben Stokes are unavailable, but I’m not worried about that in terms of the way the team will perform. I know there is enough strength in depth to cover our absence.

“I hope opposition teams are scared when they come up against us over these next few weeks. I hope people are losing sleep at night, thinking, ‘jeez, we have got a tough game tomorrow’”.

England lost in the final of the 2016 T20 World Cup but bounced back by winning the 50-over World Cup in 2019.

They take on defending champions West Indies in the opening match of this year’s T20 World Cup on Oct 23 in Dubai.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2021