India vs England 2016/17: Jason Roy Motivated By Good Crowd Support
Jan 12, 2017 at 3:30 PM
When England stepped into a transition phase in their limited-overs setup – under the direction of Andrew Strauss and the coaching of Trevor Bayliss – another individual played a crucial role indeed. South African born hard hitting opening batsman Jason Roy has been a complete marvel for England across shorter formats. Roy has reminded fans of another former South Africa born opener who represented England – Craig Kieswetter. Like the former, Roy too is seen dancing down the track and batting with absolute aggression.
As England prepare to take on India in an ODI series, Roy’s form at the top will be critical for England. If he gets going, he is a match-winner and can single handedly change the outlook of a game. On the sidelines of a practice session, Roy spoke to the media and said that playing in high profile encounters such as the World T20 helped him come to terms with the crowd support.
“With regards to crowd and pressure situation in the sub-continent, with two spinners bowling in the middle overs and pressure seems to be getting on top, you need to calm yourselves down. Tournaments like the World T20 held here and the Big Bash help in that,” said Roy.
Looking back at the first warm-up game where he scored 62, Roy said, “The atmosphere was outstanding, it got the boys going. I think the boys enjoyed, with the crowd like it was. Boys bowling to Dhoni gave us great practice. It was awesome,” he said. “It’s an incredible position for him to be, as India’s most successful captain and a hero for India and the world. But we worried about ourselves and did not pay too much attention to what was going on around.”
The right-hander concluded by mentioning that it is fun to bat alongside Alex Hales at the top of the order. “It’s good fun with him back. We enjoy batting together. We get on really well on and off the field. We know each other’s game well. We push each other; it’s a very good relationship.”