Jason Roy sets a personal target for his England T20 career
Jason Roy has admitted that his T20 career is yet to take off, with the opener keen on getting big individual scores. The dashing opener touched upon his role in the England setup, conceding it was his responsibility to hand them a good start.
Jason Roy is just 15 runs shy of becoming the fifth English batsman to score 1,000 T20 runs in international cricket.
The opener has the best strike rate out of all those with more runs than him, but his average is the worst amongst the same set of English batsmen.
The 30-year-old was asked to reflect on his T20 career when he spoke to the media in a virtual press conference on Monday. He said:
“It’s my job as an opener to go hard in the first six overs of the powerplay. It’s been a stop-start T20 international career. I haven’t quite got going properly in terms of those big scores, no hundreds.”
Jason Roy has scored 985 runs in 40 matches for England. His strike rate of 143.79 is better than that of Eoin Morgan (138.99) and Jos Buttler (139.73), two batsmen who have more T20 runs than him.
Although he has five fifties to his name, Jason Roy admitted that his next goal is to notch up a T20 ton soon.
“I think that’s my target. My mindset is to go out there and get the best possible start for the team, putting aside what I might be feeling. My job is to not mess about,” Roy said.
Jason Roy confident of getting T20 hundred for England
With Jason Roy’s role clearly defined in this England side, the batsman has to tee off from ball one. Tasked with maximizing the power play phase, Roy regularly sacrifices himself for the team cause, putting it above personal milestones.
It was put to him how his ultra-aggressive mindset may be to blame for his failure to get a T20 hundred. Although Jason Roy was open to the argument, he also went on to explain how his approach sets him up to score big.
“To score a hundred in the T20 format, you need to be ultra-aggressive. You are looking to face a maximum of 60 balls and then scoring a hundred, you need to be aggressive. More often than not you got to up the gears and start in sixth gear, and then go down the gears, then you got to go up the gears. It is a mixture of aggression and pretty calculated stuff if you want to get those big scores,” Roy continued.
Explaining his stance further, Jason Roy looked back at the second India vs England game. The opener scored 46 and looked in good touch before perishing to Washington Sundar as he tried to attack the off-spinner.
“The other night I was feeling brilliant. Started off really well, went down the gears as well. Then Washington came on and I tried to capitalise on him because it’s a good matchup for me, and I got out. If I hadn’t got out, a big score was probably around the corner. That’s just the way T20 goes. If you live by the sword, you need to be willing to die by it," the 30-year-old added.
Jason Roy is the top scorer of the India vs England T20 series so far, with 95 runs in two games. He's got pretty 40s in both games but failed to kick on from there.
If Roy can pace himself and extend his time at the crease, his hitting ability will ensure that the maiden T20 ton comes sooner rather than later.