Former England captain Mark Butcher questioned Jofra Archer’s absence from the latest Test squad, insisting that players should put their country first.England’s first Test of the summer against New Zealand got underway at Lord’s on Thursday morning with Archer not involved – despite having a central contract with the ECB.Archer has 60 wickets in 18 Tests for EnglandGettyControversially, the fast bowler was instead allowed to keep playing for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL playoffs.Current England Test skipper Ben Stokes sought to defend the move, stressing that the ‘landscape of cricket has changed’ – with Tests no longer undisputed king among the game’s three major formats.But Butcher was struggling to come to terms with the situation, as he explained in conversation with Ally McCoist on the Sports Breakfast.Reacting to Archer’s omission, the ex-Surrey batsman, who scored eight Test centuries, said: “I saw Ben’s face while he was talking about it and the expression on his face kind of belied the words that were coming out of his mouth a little bit.“Look, I know the situation has changed – I’m not naïve and I know that players have choices and, at the moment, the fear seems to be from England that if you deny players the opportunity to go and earn stacks of cash in the IPL that they will turn their backs on playing for England for good.“I guess my thought on that is, ‘Well, then so be it’. I don’t think you can have the players holding more power than the organisation that they’re playing for. You’re playing for your country and that, to me, no matter the landscape, should always come first.”Butcher admitted he understood Archer’s position, however. He continued: “I’m not putting all of this on Jofra Archer, because if England had said, ‘We want you here for the first Test match’ then he would have had to have come.“The choice would have been his and he would then either walk away from the [England] contract or not. So, you know, it’s how much the board are willing to press this issue, because the IPL final was Sunday last week.“He had time to get back. Ok, he might not have been in perfect shape, but I still don’t see that that’s any reason why he shouldn’t have been available for selection.“They could have selected him and then decided, ‘Ok, he’s not quite ready; we’ll pick him for the next [Test].Archer took 25 wickets in this year’s IPLAFP“But to basically say, well, you know, ‘You can go off and do your own thing’ for the – it looks like being – the first two Test matches of a six-Test match summer to me just doesn’t seem right.”England’s Test summerLooking to pick up the pieces after the winter’s chastening 4-1 Ashes defeat in Australia, Brendon McCullum’s England opted for a pace bowling attack of Gus Atkinson, Ollie Robinson – back in the fold after two years away – and Josh Tongue for the first Test.There was also a recall to the 11 for spinner Shoaib Bashir, who was part of the Ashes squad but controversially wasn’t used.Durham’s Emilio Gay made his England debut opening the batting alongside Ben Duckett, with Zak Crawley dropped from the side amid poor form.England will play three Tests against New Zealand this month before another three-match series against Pakistan later in the summer.