Bairstow in at the deep end
Jonny replaces hapless Roy
The last thing eoin Morgan wanted when he said Jason Roy would play throughout the Champions Trophy was the prospect of throwing Jonny Bairstow into the deep end at Cardiff today and asking him to swim against Pakistan.
That emphatic vote of confidence delivered by the england captain on the eve of this tournament was supposed to reassure Roy that he still had free rein to go out and rediscover his destructive best on the world stage.
Instead, after another three Roy failures, england have little option but to go back on Morgan’s word and hope that Bairstow’s purple patch has not subsided while sitting on the sidelines.
It did not need Inspector Morse yesterday to deduce that Roy would indeed miss out today when he cut a peripheral figure in training at Cardiff, while Bairstow was first into the nets practising alongside Alex hales.
Bairstow will not only play in this semi-final but will open the batting for the first time in a one-day international because Morgan’s attempt at supporting one of his most important and selfless batsmen has backfired.
Roy looked devoid of all confidence and judgment at edgbaston on Saturday when he fell to Mitchell Starc’s second ball, forcing england to accept they would have to make one change to their winning team.
It is asking a lot of Bairstow to come in for his first game of the tournament but it should not faze a batsman who has grabbed virtually every chance given to him to prove he belongs just as much in white as red-ball cricket.
In any other era, Bairstow would be a 50-over regular but, until now, not even three half-centuries in his last four ODIs — all in the middle order — had been enough to force his way into the most dynamic one-day side in england’s history.
Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur said he was not interested in mind games but then employed them by saying he was pleased Roy was not playing and pointed out that opening on this stage was different to the county game.
That may be so but if anyone can make that step up today without a competitive bat for just over two weeks then it is Bairstow, who smashed 174 for Yorkshire against Durham at the top of the order earlier this season.
And if he fails then england have not exactly lost anything, with Roy’s brain scrambled and england having to recover from his early loss in each of the three victories that have made them the trophy’s only unbeaten team.
In truth, the travails of Roy are the only wispy cloud on england’s otherwise sunny horizon as they prepare to take on a Pakistan side who just about managed to upset the odds against Sri Lanka here on Monday.
It would be a huge surprise if Pakistan were to crash Morgan’s party now, not when a final at the Oval on Sunday, and in all probability a chance to avenge defeat by India in the 2013 final, is within england’s grasp.
The eighth-ranked team out of eight in this tournament are nothing if not mercurial and in the restored Mohammad Amir they have an opening bowler capable of inducing one of england’s periodic spectacular collapses.
Arthur said he needs to take ‘chill pills’ to deal with his side’s unpredictability but it is that spirit, a la Imran Khan’s 1992 World Cup cornered tigers, that makes Pakistan so dangerous.
Morgan, though, knows england will never have a better chance of finally breaking their duck and winning their first global title over the longer limited-overs distance.