Ahead of the ongoing fixture between England and Australia at Lord’s, former Aussie spinner Brad Hogg believes they will face a tough time at the ongoing ICC World Cup 2019 after Jason Roy has been ruled out due to a hamstring tear on Monday (June 25).
On June 14, the opening batsman has picked an injury during the fielding against Windies which also saw him missing out to open innings alongside Jonny Bairstow against the Caribbeans.
Roy himself has played a brilliant knock against Bangladesh. He has slammed 153 against the Tigers to make it a cakewalk for the English team.
Hogg observed that the Three Lions have struggled in the middle overs. He added the loss against Sri Lanka will also be playing in their minds.
Jason Roy’s absence, a headache for England?
While considering Roy’s absence as a setback for England, the veteran spinner Hogg in a video on Twitter stated England would dearly miss his services. He believes Roy has been giving impetus to his team while having a knocking of scoring big apart from maintaining a quality run-rate.
“I think the biggest loss here is Jason Roy. He is explosive, got a high run rate, gets big scores on the board. And he gets England off to a good start 75 per cent of the time and they are missing that and the middle order is struggling because of that,” Hogg said.
Does England struggle to chase the target?
The No.1 ranked ODI team had faced a major upset at the hands of the Lions by 21 runs. Back then, they failed to chase down the target of 232. Thus, Hogg believes England has struggled to chase down a target. It eventually became a major cause of concern for one of the World Cup favourites.
“The momentum is starting to change in the negative terms. They have just been beaten by Sri Lanka that is a huge loss on a psychological front. When they chase, they are struggling to take down the totals that is a huge concern for England, especially going into this match,” Hogg added.
Currently, England are facing Australia in London. Eoin Morgan won the toss and opted to field first. Australian openers had a caution start as they post 50 on board for no loss in 12 overs despite some close calls.