Kevin Pietersen fears England risk losing Jofra Archer to franchise cricket if they fail to learn the mistakes of the past.
The 24-year-old made his international debut earlier this year and, like Pietersen during his heyday, enjoyed a meteoric rise as he played a pivotal role in England’s World Cup winning campaign and a dramatic drawn Ashes series against Australia on home soil.
Archer has subsequently found the going tougher in the longest format of the game, struggling to consistently generate the pace and recapture the rhythm on the recent tour of New Zealand that made him such a daunting proposition to face during the English summer.
An elbow injury, meanwhile, prevented Archer from featuring in last week’s win over South Africa in Port Elizabeth and he failed to recover in time to earn a recall for the final Test of the series which starts in Johannesburg on Friday.
Pietersen, meanwhile, fears the ECB are guilty of fueling speculation that Archer is less than fully committed Test cricket, echoing the treatment he was subjected to that ultimately brought about a premature end to his own international career.
Pietersen told talkSPORT: ‘There are whispers in the press box. Is he actually injured? Does he want to play Test cricket? The murmurings that are coming out of the dressing room about Archer.
‘I don’t think it’s ever going to stop. I just think it’s sad that Jofra Archer is spoken about [like this] because he should be looked after.
‘I never used the word racism. I just see a superstar in the environment being treated in a similar way to how all my nonsense started.
‘Don’t talk about the nonsense of his elbow, don’t talk about about him being late to team meetings, don’t talk about all the garbage. Don’t let it filter up here into the press box.
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‘Just ask him if he wants to play Test cricket. If he just wants to play ODIs and T20s, so be it. It’s his life.’
Archer bowled one of the most memorable spells of fast bowling in recent memory during the Lord’s Test against Australia back in August when he forced Steve Smith out of the contest after striking him on the elbow and helmet.
The Caribbean-born quick was also England’s leading wicket-taker during the World Cup and bowled the decisive super over in the final.
Pietersen believes the ECB must quickly ascertain where Archer’s priorities lie and work with, rather than against, him or risk losing him for good.
He added: ‘They’re (the ECB) not going to win with Archer. If he decides he can’t be bothered, he’s going to earn a hell of a lot of money playing franchise cricket. Trust me, I did it. There’s a lot of money out there.
‘Archer’s job should be to bowl three or four overs at 155kph. Archer’s position in the team is the enforcer. That’s how he should be used. Let other guys bowl line and length.
‘But find out if he wants to play Test cricket, if he doesn’t prioritise his ODIs and T20s. Let him bowl as fast as he can and create special days like he did at Lord’s in July last year.’
Joe Root, meanwhile, did make one change to his side for the fourth Test at the New Wanderers with Chris Woakes replacing spinner Dom Bess with Archer failing to make a full recovery.
The England captain said: ‘We’ve made one change Dom Bess misses out for Chris Woakes so we are going in with a similar seam attack to last week.
‘It was a very difficult decision obviously waiting on fitness results and unfortunately Jofra’s not been made available fitness wise.
‘He couldn’t guarantee he was going to get through the whole game. It’s very disappointing for him he’s worked very hard to try and get back but hopefully we can get 20 more wickets again.’
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