Star bowler Jofra Archer is out of the final two Ashes tests for England

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Star bowler Jofra Archer is out of the final two Ashes tests for England

2025-12-24 14:25 Last Updated At：15:18

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — England bowler Jofra Archer will not play in the remaining two Ashes tests due to a left side strain, a team official said Wednesday.

The 30-year-old Archer spent four years battling a variety of fitness issues, including stress fractures of the back and right elbow, but has been in strong form since making a long-awaited red-ball return against India.

The fourth test begins Friday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the fifth on Jan. 4 in Sydney. Australia has a winning 3-0 lead in the five-test series and has retained the Ashes.

Archer joined the squad at training on Wednesday at the MCG, but played no part in practice and a spokesperson later confirmed he was out for the remainder of the tour.

He had bowled a total of 80 overs in the games at Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide, taking nine wickets at 27.11 and maintaining the lowest strike-rate among England bowlers.

In the third test at Adelaide, he took five for 53 in the first innings and scored 51 runs.

Gus Atkinson replaced Archer in the visitors’ XI named Wednesday while Jacob Bethell has replaced No. 3 Ollie Pope for the Melbourne test. Pope is averaging 20.83 with the bat for the series.

But Ben Duckett, the subject of a team investigation after footage purportedly showing the 31-year-old intoxicated between the second and third tests emerged this week, has held his spot despite averaging 16 for the series.

England team: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith, Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

Search teams probe wreckage after Libyan army chief and 7 others are killed in Turkey plane crash

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Search and recovery teams on Wednesday intensified their operations at the site of a plane crash that killed Libya’s military chief and other high-level officers, working to secure the area and locate the aircraft’s flight recorders after a night of heavy rain and fog, Turkey’s state-run news agency said.

The private jet carrying Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad, four other officers and three crew members crashed in Turkey on Tuesday after taking off from the capital, Ankara, killing everyone on board. Libyan officials said the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction on the plane.

The Libyan delegation was on its way back to Tripoli after holding high-level defense talks in Ankara aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah confirmed the deaths, describing the incident on Facebook as a “tragic accident” and a “great loss” for Libya.

Al-Hadad was the top military commander in western Libya and played a crucial role in the ongoing, U.N.-brokered efforts to unify Libya’s military, which has split, much like Libya’s other institutions.

The four other officers who died in the crash were Gen. Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, the head of Libya’s ground forces, Brig. Gen. Mahmoud Al-Qatawi, who led the military manufacturing authority, Mohammed Al-Asawi Diab, advisor to the chief of staff, and Mohammed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub, a military photographer with the chief of staff’s office.

The identities of the three crew members were not immediately released.

Turkish officials said the Falcon 50 type business jet took off from Ankara’s Esenboga airport at 8:30 p.m. and that contact was lost some 40 minutes later. The plane notified air traffic control of an electrical fault and requested an emergency landing. The aircraft was redirected back to Esenboga, where preparations for its landing began.

The plane, however, disappeared from the radar while descending for the emergency landing, the Turkish presidential communications office said.

The wreckage was found near the village of Kesikkavak, in Haymana, a district some 70 kilometers (about 43.5 miles) south of Ankara.

At Haymana, gendarmerie police sealed off the area where the plane crashed, while the Turkish disaster management agency, AFAD, set up a mobile coordination center, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Specialized vehicles, such as tracked ambulances, were deployed because of the muddy terrain.

Anadolu said Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya is expected to visit the site along with prosecutors assigned to lead the investigation.

Libya was also expected to send a team to Ankara to work with Turkish authorities investigating the crash.

While in Ankara, al-Haddad had met with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and other officials.

Libya plunged into chaos after the country’s 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The country split, with rival administrations in the east and west, backed by an array of rogue militias and foreign governments.

Turkey has been allied with Libya’s government in the west, but has recently taken steps to improve ties with the eastern-based government as well.

Tuesday’s visit by the Libyan delegation came a day after Turkey’s parliament approved to extend the mandate of Turkish troops serving in Libya for two years. Turkey deployed troops following a 2019 security and military cooperation agreement that was reached between Ankara and the Tripoli-based government.

Abuelgasim reported from Cairo.