'We have experienced players in the dressing room to combat the run of losses we are on' - Sharjah Warriorz's Jason Roy hopes for strong turnaround

Jason Roy is representing Sharjah Warriorz in the ongoing DP World ILT20 2025. The Tim Southee-led side is going through a lean patch in the tournament, having suffered three consecutive defeats. Their most recent loss came against table-toppers Desert Vipers on Saturday, January 25.

Roy scored a fighting half-century to help Warriorz post a 152-run target at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. However, Alex Hales and Sam Curran's blistering efforts with the bat helped the Vipers register a comfortable eight-wicket win with 31 balls to spare.

After the defeat, Roy admitted that the total they posted was quite a few runs short. He hoped for a better effort from the top-order in the games to come. He also mentioned that the Sharjah Cricket Stadium is quite good for batting.

"No, disappointing loss that one. I think we were quite a few runs short. Playing against an extremely strong Desert Vipers side. So, we cannot expect too much when we put that sort of a score on the board. But we fought till the end. I think Hales and Sam Curran played extremely well. And we were very short with the bat I think today, and our top-order, hopefully, takes more responsibility throughout the rest of the tournament now and see where we get to," Roy said after the match.

"It's a lovely place to come and bat. You get a lot of reward for your shots out here. Still a bit in it for the bowlers. But you know, with the boundary sizes and stuff like that, you can really put a good score on the board if you get in. Hopefully, next time we play and we go tomorrow, we can put a proper score on the board," he said.

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The Warriorz are languishing at No. 5 in the six-team tournament, with four more matches to play in the round-robin phase. Roy, however, lauded the coaching staff and team management for maintaining a good environment in the dressing room. He hoped for a strong tunraorund from the team in the latter half of the tournament.

"We are sticking together incredibly well. We got such a nice environment. The management and the coaching staff have worked extremely hard to create that and also hard-working. We are always talking about the game. We'll be on the bus, on the way home now, talking about the game, how we can get better. You know, we've got some experience in the change room to help combat the run of losses we are on now. But the backend of the tournament is the most important time of the tournament," Roy said.

The England cricketer felt that the Sharjah bowlers were unlucky inside the powerplay as they got the ball to move around and beat the batters on several occasions but they couldn't get the outside edge.

"No, not really. I think you've got your score on the board and you try and defend it. I think when you know you are runs short, then it is extremely difficult. We had to start well which we did. We missed the outside edge, five, six, seven times. It could have been a completely different powerplay for us. We needed to take early wickets and unfortunately, it didn't happen today. And these things accumulate over a tournament. We need these things to happen to defend scores like that. So, very, very frustrating couple of games for us but we don't overthink. We are a lovely group of people," Roy stated.

Roy was asked about the addition of veteran Australian spinner Adam Zampa to the Warriorz's lineup. The 34-year-old said that his experience and skill sets will add a lot of value to the team.

"Yeah, obviously, we didn't have that wrist spinner through the middle for a couple of games and it proved quite evident that we didn't. Someone with his amount of experience and his skill sets and the way he talks about the game is incredibly important to have. And hopefully, we'll see some big performances from him," Roy concluded.