England backing their boy Roy to finally fire against Australia

ENGLAND are set to take a Champions Trophy gamble by handing Jason Roy one last chance to recover his form. Roy, who has made 47 runs in his last seven one-day internationals, looks certain to play against Australia tomorrow with England again resisting the temptation to bring in the desperately unlucky Jonny Bairstow. On the day Australia’s David Warner said he would shake hands with his old adversary Joe Root when they meet up again at Edgbaston, it emerged England had come to a decision on their selection dilemma over Roy. Captain Eoin Morgan, who guaranteed Roy his place for the whole tournament ahead of the opening Champions Trophy game against Bangladesh, has been the driving force in insisting on sticking with the Surrey man. Morgan is determined to show faith in the explosive opener because he has been selfless in retaining his all-out attacking approach in the interests of the team, despite looking seriously short of touch. The problem is, should Roy fail again as England attempt to eliminate their old enemy at Edgbaston, they will face the tricky situation of having to throw Bairstow in at the deep end in a semi-final. England hope it does not come to that and that Roy returns to the form that makes him one of the most destructive batsmen in the world. ‘One of the things we’ve been very consistent on is selection and I don’t see any point in making changes before the semi-final,’ said England assistant coach Paul Farbrace. ‘We haven’t seen anything that suggests Jason’s struggling for confidence. If he was drastically out of form and playing and missing every ball you’d be concerned, but we’ve stuck by people when they haven’t been taking wickets or scoring runs and it’s always paid dividends.’