Stewart: Give Roy a bash at the Ashes
ENGLAND should look no further than Surrey’s Jason Roy if they need to replace Ben Stokes for the Ashes.
That is the opinion of former England skipper Alec Stewart.
White-ball opener Roy filled in for suspended Alex Hales with great skill at the Oval and Southampton, scoring 84 and 96 in ODI wins over the West Indies.
But Surrey director of cricket Stewart is confident that Roy, 27, could do a Test job as a destructive middleorder batsman.
Stewart insists his positive strokeplay could be an asset in Australia.
“Jason is very much a match-changing batsman – that’s my take,” said Stewart, who played 133 Tests.
“He hasn’t got Test experience and yes, he was shy of runs at the start of the summer.
“But I think the last two innings show his ability.
“He was under the cosh a bit. He had been out of sorts and dropped, therefore he had to grab his opportunity.
“Although he didn’t get three figures in either innings, I think he showed that he stepped up when he really had to.
“Jason doesn’t know what is going to happen to Hales, so he had to put in a performance where his team-mates, coaches and the selectors would take notice – and he did that.
“I personally wouldn’t be against him being that No.6 batsman in the Test line-up for his game-changing ability.
“In four-day cricket he bangs out hundreds and he has now played international cricket for a period of time. And because there isn’t anyone in that middle order who can bat like Stokes, I would look at Jason Roy.
“People will say, ‘take your Surrey hat off’ and I’ve taken it off. I’m looking at trying to avoid massive disruption in that line-up.”