Jason Roy not downcast at his latest failure, says Rory Burns
Jason Roy left the field with his middle stump uprooted and no greater sense of belonging in Test cricket. But according to Rory Burns, his close friend, the right-hander remains upbeat regardless.
Roy’s move down into the middle order started brightly enough, opening his account with a caressed four through extra off Josh Hazlewood. But on 22 it was terminated by the same man who, amid an impressive threewicket burst that cashed in on the pressure built by Pat Cummins after tea, exposed his defence by jagging one between bat and pad.
Having averaged 9.5 as an opener in the series, and spoken before the Test about being drained from the World Cup, Roy likely has one final chance to demonstrate his game can transfer to the longest format; his Surrey teammate, Ollie Pope, is next in line having already been on standby as a concussion replacement.
Burns, who has risen through the county ranks with Roy, said: “He’s all right. He’s still the same old Jason, which you like to see. He hasn’t changed in terms of how he is off the park and that’s a good thing. He got a start and would have liked a few more but it is something to build on.”
In contrast to Roy, Burns is enjoying a breakthrough summer and though disappointed to fall for 81, the lefthander now boasts 323 runs for the series – some 99 runs more than the rest of the openers on both sides combined.
On the match situation, which sees England resuming on 200 for five and still 98 away from avoiding the followon, Burns said: “We’re in a fight and it’s very obvious what we need to do. A couple of good partnerships and then we are up close to them, and we’re asking them to make a play. We have got to look at from a positive aspect. The way Headingley went, anything is possible.”
As Jofra Archer spent the day reflecting on his first wicketless outing in Test cricket, England’s bowling coach, Chris Silverwood, moved to warn the wider public that expectations for the young quick must remain tempered.
Already a World Cup winner in his first summer of international cricket, Archer burst on to the Test scene at Lord’s with the high-octane spell that felled Steve Smith and then claimed six for 45 in the first innings at Headingley through a skilful harnessing of seaming conditions.
But after the 24-year-old shipped none for 97 from 27 overs in Australia’s first innings at Old Trafford, looking down on pace and failing to disrupt Smith en route to his third double century against England, Silverwood was quick to urge patience.
“I think we’re just going to be careful with Jofra,” Silverwood saidtold Sky Sports. “He’s playing his third Test match, so we’ve got to cut him a little bit of slack. He’s still finding his way into international cricket. He’s figuring out what it’s all about.
“Test cricket is hard work. You must put the workload in, but it’s there, and he’s trying and we’ve seen what he’s capable of. But he’s not going to do it every day.”
Archer may well earn an extended breather after this series, with England now pondering resting their leading multiformat players during the fivematch Twenty20 series in New Zealand this November before returning to near-full strength for the two Tests that follow.
Two players who may well benefit from this and receive their first England call-ups in short-form cricket are the Somerset opener Tom Banton and Saqib Mahmood, the Lancashire quick, who are known to be in the thoughts of the selectors as they look to blood the next generation.
Jimmy Anderson may well be held back from the Tests in New Zealand. After failing to recover from the calf injury that struck in the first Ashes Test, there are thoughts of sending the 37-year-old to South Africa in early December as part of a bowling camp with a view to readying him for the four-Test series against the Proteas that begins on Boxing Day.