Pietersen says England wrong to drop Roy

LONDON: Kevin Pietersen believes it was a “poor decision” by England to drop Jason Roy during the Champions Trophy, a tournament he believes the hosts “should have won” in their own conditions.

Before the one-day competition got underway, struggling opening batsman Roy was given unequivocal backing by England captain Eoin Morgan, who said he would “definitely” stay in the side for the whole tournament.

But after managing just 51 runs in eight ODI innings so far this season, Roy was dropped for England’s semi-final against Pakistan and replaced at the top of the order by Jonny Bairstow.

Test wicket-keeper Bairstow made 43 but England, previously unbeaten in the eight-team tournament, collapsed to 211 all out in a match eventual champions Pakistan won by a commanding eight wickets in Cardiff.

“Everybody struggles, it’s a learning curve,” said former England captain Pietersen, who has played alongside Roy at county side Surrey, at the launch of the South African Global League Twenty20 tournament in London on Monday.

Pietersen, one of the outstanding batsmen of his generation, added: “Everybody struggles, it’s a learning curve. He’s a youngster, he’s not going to nail his whole career. You go through ups and downs, he’s a kid.

“What he’ll learn to deal with is how quickly to get himself out of this bit of bad form. Is he a bad player? No. He’s a wonderful player. He shouldn’t have been dropped. That was a poor decision.

“I think they should just have given him a run for the rest of the tournament. I’m not saying they would have won that game but they should have just stuck with it.

“They were scoring 300 regularly and then you drop a player and you get what you get. It’s not probably because of him getting dropped, because I think Jonny (Bairstow) batted ok.

“I wouldn’t have done it, but I’m not the coach or the captain.”

“England are a wonderful young team,” said Pietersen. “With the fire-power they have got and the players they have got, they should have won this tournament.” AFP