Jason Roy’s impactful World Cup performances were just the right excuse for Joe Root and national selector, Ed Smith, to pick him in the Test side for the Ashes. With a selection policy driven by data, Smith had garnered attention when he brought in Jos Buttler and a red-ball retired Adil Rashid into the Test side earlier. Roy was the latest player to gain a spot in the Test side on the back of white-ball performances.
England have struggled to find two effective openers for a long time. Since Andrew Strauss’ retirement in 2012, as many as 14 openers aside from Alastair Cook were tried with none of them cementing their spot. With Cook retired, England had two vacant places at the top with no obvious choices.
While Rory Burns, on the back of his runs for Surrey filled one, Roy was identified to fill the other to get England off to quick starts. Roy’s inception to Test cricket, though, has been a disaster so far. After six innings at the top, Roy averages nine with his only half-century – against Ireland – coming from Number 3.
The average of nine is the fourth joint lowest for any opener aged below 30 (minimum six innings) in the history of Test cricket. Roy’s elevation is particularly interesting because it came in a high profile series like the Ashes.
In the series in England so far, Roy has made scores of 10, 28, 0, 2 and 0 in five innings at the top. Of his five dismissals this series, four have come against right-arm pacers with each of them being a nick behind the stumps. Roy has clearly struggled to leave enough balls and pushing at wide ones with no feet movement has resulted in edges behind the stumps.
Adapting to Test cricket has been hard for Roy, especially with the kind of wickets England have dished out this series. But if Ed Smith is seeking a Sehwag or Warner kind of role from Roy, he might want to check how they have fared in tough seaming conditions.
Sehwag averaged 27.8 in England, 20 in New Zealand and 25.46 in South Africa. His reputation arises from a 57.39 average in Asia which has also seen 18 centuries from him.
Warner, on the other hand, averages 34.7 away from home and 59.6 on the flat tracks at home, where he has scored 15 of his 21 hundreds.
Not great examples if Roy is expected to click at home on the seaming wickets in red-ball cricket.
Feature Image Courtesy: AFP / Paul Ellis
