Roy firing on all cylinders again after fighting through ‘dark time’

JASON ROY admitted going through ‘a dark time’ earlier this year after helping England move into a 2-0 series lead over the netherlands with a blistering 73 off 60 balls.

Struggling after nearly two years of bubble life, he was fined £2,500 by the ECB’s Cricket discipline Commission and handed a two-match ban, suspended for 12 months, for an unspecified transgression deemed to have brought the game into disrepute.

It prompted the Surrey batsman to take two months away from cricket to recharge his batteries. ‘Unfortunately I can’t talk about it, but it’s not been spoken about since it all came out, so I was able to enjoy my training, my family time and normal life for a couple of months,’ he said. ‘Things mentally weren’t right with me at the Pakistan Super league.

‘I was in a weird place because I was playing good cricket, but I wasn’t enjoying myself, I wasn’t happy and it was just a dark time.

‘It was a good two months to come home and live a normal life for a bit after a tough couple of years.

‘It was a lot of months away — over 50 days of hotel quarantine the year before and then having a child in January and having to spend time away from him was just a bit too much.’

Roy played down suggestions that captain Eoin Morgan was under pressure after his second duck of the netherlands series.

‘We won the game, so he’s happy. He’s a knock away from people being all over him again, but that’s the fickle nature of sport. He’s an incredible worker and an incredible guy, so I’d back him for sure.’ He also thanked Moeen ali for his speech during a pre-match presentation to mark Roy’s 100th one-day international cap. ‘If he’d gone on for a minute longer, there might have been a tear or two,’ he added.