Stir-crazy Roy ready to fight for a Test spot
JASON ROY admits he feels like a ‘ pawn’ in the debate about the return of sport during the coronavirus pandemic and warned that no player should take the field if they feel uncomfortable.
England’s white-ball opener says he has been going ‘ stir crazy’ during the lockdown, hitting a tennis ball against a wall as he attempts to stay in some kind of touch. But, though he is itching to return to action as he bids to build on l ast s ummer’s World Cup success and reclaim the Test place he lost during the Ashes, he is adamant he will not do so at the expense of his health.
‘I won’t be going to my bosses and saying, “Put me in the front line”,’ he said. ‘I’ll just get told what to do. I’m just a pawn in the sporting world.
‘Everyone is missing sport, but safety comes first. If an individual wants to go on to the front line and put himself at risk, then good on him.
‘But if somebody doesn’t want to, then I don’t think they should be criticised. I’m not sure it’s the case that the country desperately needs us to play cricket to make themselves feel better.’
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), who have already ruled out any cricket before July, continue to investigate the possibility of staging matches in biosecure environments and behind closed doors. Yet even a July 1 start would mean Roy hadn’t picked up a bat for nearly four months, stretching back to his appearances f or Quetta Gladiators in t he Pakistan Super League.
‘ It is a huge chunk out of my international career, for sure,’ he said. ‘I’m 29. The big three-O is in July and time is moving very fast but I try not to look at it too negatively. It is a huge shame what is happening now and to be missing this amount of cricket is quite a daunting feeling because you don’t quite know how you are going to feel when you get back.
‘You can watch videos and make yourself feel good and train well but until you’re facing that first ball in the middle you don’t really know. You’ve got a worry over your shoulder after three or four months out of the game... are you going to be able to bat?’
If and when cricket is deemed safe t o return, Roy, who was dropped for the fifth Ashes Test after averaging 13 in the series, has set himself the target of a Test comeback.
It is a challenge made tougher by the winter success of Rory Burns, Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley.
‘ They found a nice couple of players to fill that spot,’ he said. ‘But I worked very hard to crack the nut in Test cricket and for it to get taken away from me that quickly was really heartbreaking.
I’m going to be trying my hardest to get back into the side, and more than anything to try and prove myself wrong.
‘ Scoring the weight of runs in white- ball cricket and then not being able to do that in Test cricket was upsetting because I really felt like I could. I still feel like I can, but I just need to fight for my position.
‘Test cricket’s the pinnacle, so it’s hard for me to sit back and say I’m a Test cricketer, because I haven’t quite succeeded at that.
‘Last summer was ridiculous. I’ve never felt so high and so low in such a short period of time. But it’s a pretty small speed bump.’