Nasser Hussain asks England to keep faith in Jason Roy

England suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of South Africa on Monday at Lord’s. Their batting collapsed in front of Kagiso Rabada’s fiery spell and were bowled out for just 153 runs. It was a rare batting failure from the Three Lions as they were in superb form before the match. But their opener Jason Roy was not in any kind of form. Monday was no different either as Roy departed after scoring just 4 runs.

The England team management is pondering over replacing struggling Roy with Jonny Bairstow. But former English captain Naseer Hussain feels England should stick to their Plan ‘A’ and continue with Roy. Stats show that since World Cup 2015, England has the worst opening partnership. The high-profile combination of Alex Hales and Jason Roy has not being able to bear fruit for the team.

Stats are misleading

But Hussain is paying no heed to the stats. “Stats are misleading. When Roy has done well, Alex Hales has struggled — and vice versa. If both fire at the same time, spectators will be in for a treat,” wrote Nasser in his article for Daily Mail. To justify his opinion, he added, “Roy has not become a bad player overnight, and Bairstow has never opened for England. A last-minute change would reek of panic. England have been there before, with distinctly mixed results.”

In his view, Roy should be benched only if he is low on confidence after the string of poor performances. But Hussain believes that the right-hander is a tough lad. “There is only one set of circumstances in which I would consider replacing Roy with Bairstow. If the coach or captain looks into Roy’s eyes and sees a player who is mentally shot, then he cannot play. But, assuming he is mentally tough enough, England have to stick with him. They must tell him he was good enough to get three quick half-centuries in India in January and that he has the confidence of the dressing room.”

Roy’s stint at IPL was not helpful

Nasser Hussain feels that the 26-year-old’s campaign at the Indian Premier League for Gujarat Lions did him no favour whatsoever. “Roy has not benefited from his recent stint at the IPL. Perhaps he would have been better re-acclimatising to English conditions with Surrey, and batting with Kumar Sangakkara on a good track at The Oval,” he wrote.

The former English skipper believes that the match against Bangladesh on the opening day of the Champions Trophy 2017 is the perfect day for Roy to prove his calibre. He concluded by saying, “England’s first game of the Champions Trophy is on Thursday against Bangladesh at The Oval, his home ground. It is the perfect chance for him to prove the old sporting adage about class and form.”