TINY CROWD GAVE ME A HUGE RUSH
Nets in front of fans bowls over Roy
JASON ROY forgot how it felt to bat in front of a crowd until 20 fans turned up to watch him at net practice.
Now he has to remember how to make big scores.
Since the 2019 World Cup final heart-stopper against New Zealand, England’s opener has scored just one international half-century in 16 white-ball innings.
A nation remains eternally grateful for his pinpoint throw to run out Martin Guptill as England triumphed in the Super Over drama at Lord’s 20 months ago.
But Roy is keen to remind England fans of his clean hitting in the T20 series against India, which is tied at
1-1 going into today’s third instalment in Ahmedabad.
The Surrey star got the taste for big runs again for Perth Scorchers in Australia’s Big Bash and scores of 49 and 46 in India suggest a ‘daddy’ may be just around the corner.
He said: “The whole year that has just gone – with no crowds being around and everything that is going on around the game – puts loads of stuff in perspective. Then you add your own personal work not going quite as well as you want and it can get on top of you.
“I hadn’t played enough cricket so I needed to play in the
Big Bash – and the moment I got there, before the first game I had 20-odd people watching me in the nets. I had a sense of an adrenaline rush and belonging again and it was the most incredible feeling.
“Playing in front of crowds makes you realise they mean a huge amount to us as sportsmen. Dealing with emotions off the field, with everything going on around Covid, bubble life and all this stuff can cloud your judgment and make you overthink a few things.”
Roy’s buzz from appreciative crowds may be short-lived as a rise in Covid-19 cases means the rest of the T20 series will be behind closed doors.
He is 15 runs short of 1,000 in T20 internationals and his strike rate – 143.79 runs per 100 balls – is faster than Eoin Morgan, Alex
Hales, Jos Buttler and Kevin Pietersen, the only four players in front of him in the top-scorer list.
Only Hales and Dawid Malan have cracked the three-figure barrier for England and Roy said: “To score a hundred in T20, you have to be ultra-aggressive. If you live by the sword, you’ve got to be willing to die by it.”
Hales, out of favour since testing positive for recreational drugs before the World Cup, has begun the long haul back towards reintegration after “positive” discussions with England director of cricket Ashley Giles. Roy said: “It’s a huge talking point. He’s playing [franchise cricket] around the world and doing extremely well.”
It can really make you overthink a few things