Jason Roy

One of the cleanest strikers of the white ball, Jason Roy played a pivotal role in England’s maiden World Cup triumph in 2019. He is a sensational striker of the ball and on his day can make any bowling attack look clueless in front of his whirlwind hitting. Roy was awarded his maiden call-up in the England side for a one-off T20I against India in 2014 on the back of superb performances in the Natwest T20 Blast where he scored 677 runs at an average of 48. 

The Durban-born opener hasn’t really performed poorly in the first-class circuit but it is white-ball cricket that has made him what he is today. Ever since the disastrous 2015 World Cup campaign, Roy played a pivotal role in England’s sensational resurgence in the next few years which helped them reach the top of the ODI rankings and also win the 50 overs World Cup for the very first time. 

Having played for Surrey in the County Championship, Roy proved to be an important addition to the England limited-overs set-up. The South African-born batsman has the ability to play freely and he made his intentions clear during the series against Sri Lanka in 2016. Since then Roy grew from strength to strength and established himself as one of the most sought-after openers in ODI cricket. 

After a brilliant 2016, Roy had a relatively poor time with the bat prior to the Champions Trophy and was dropped from the XI for the semi-final against Pakistan. He returned to domestic cricket and was quite exceptional during the T20 Blast and forced his way back into the T20 side and responded with a stroke-filled 67 against South Africa in the 2nd encounter. 

He bounced back to the ODI team and smashed a sensational 180 against Australia while chasing a target over 300. It was batsmanship of the highest order and his stand of 221 with Joe Root remains the highest ever 3rd wicket partnership for England. There was no looking back and Roy kept on churning out runs for fun and forged a formidable opening partnership with Jonny Bairstow as England came into the 2019 World Cup with the ‘favourites’ tag.

Roy was part of the Gujarat Lions squad in 2017 and was part of the Delhi Daredevils squad in 2018. Roy has played a few good knocks for his IPL franchises. He decided to opt-out of the cash-rich league in 2019 in a bid to prepare for the World Cup. 

Roy was instrumental in England winning the 2019 World Cup. He started off the tournament with a fine half-century against South Africa and backed it up with a knock of 153 against Bangladesh. England suffered an injury scare when Roy was forced to miss the next three matches after tearing the left hamstring muscle. England was on the verge of elimination when Roy returned for the match against India and smashed the Indian bowlers during a knock of 66 of 57 deliveries. Along with Bairstow, the duo posted three back-to-back century partnerships as England made a dramatic comeback and ended up winning the World Cup by the barest of margins. 

After being snubbed from the 2021 IPL auctions, Roy took to Twitter to post his emotional sentiments- “Massive shame not to be involved in the @IPL this year”. He returned as a replacement for Mitchell Marsh after the Australian all-rounder made himself unavailable for the entire season owing to personal reasons. Sunrisers Hyderabad acquired his services for the base price of INR 2 crore but the star-studded lineup of Sunrisers had no place for the English international.

(As of July 2021)