Abu Dhabi, (Asian independent) England opener Jason Roy has credited working “hell of a lot” with reserve player Liam Dawson on improving his game against left-arm spin while guiding England to an eight-wicket win over Bangladesh in Super 12 stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at Sheikh Zayed Stadium here on Wednesday.
Roy was awarded the ‘Player of the Match’ for his knock of 61 off 38 balls laced with five fours and three sixes.
“As a batsman, as a cricketer, you always have some darker thoughts going into your mind before the game: What if; this can happen; this can happen. But you just have to remind yourself that your training has been so good. I worked a hell of a lot against Liam Dawson in the nets. He’s been bowling so much to me which has really helped my game. So, I’ve just got to keep reminding myself to do what I do in training, and things will be alright,” said Roy in the post-match press conference.
“I think it’s an area of my game I’ve been working extremely hard on on slow pitches against left arm spinners, spinners, and the angle as such. It was a big game for me to go out there today and put all the hard work I’ve been doing into the nets into play. Credit to the bowlers but still, to knock it off, but yeah, very pleased,” added Roy, who made his 50th T20I appearance memorable.
Roy was in praise of hard-hitting batter Liam Livingstone, who scalped the wickets of Mushfiqur Rahim and Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah with his part-time off-spin, thereby stalling their recovery march. “He’s been working extremely hard. It’s been great having Moeen and Rash on the side as well, and he learns a lot from them and Jeetan Patel, our spin coach, as well, has been giving him some words of wisdom.”
“It’s paying off for him. He’s doing extremely well for us and holding up an average is extremely positive. Especially as the tournament goes on where the pitches might get a little bit harder against spin, who knows, he might have more of a role to play.”
The 31-year-old was appreciative of pacer Chris Woakes, who bowled a tight spell of 1/12, keeping Bangladesh on a tight leash in power-play. “His line and length has been perfect from ball one. On these sorts of pitches as well, that sort of line, that sort of length, it’s incredibly hard to get away as an opening batter. So, he’s running it in and keeping it nice and simple for us and doing an incredible job.”
“Take nothing away from the bowlers. I don’t think we took too much of a foot wrong. We took our catches and fielded and bowled really well. It was a pitch that was on the slow side, and if you bowled straight and on a good length, it was quite hard to get away. We got off to a great start with the bats and then just capitalized on a lower total,” concluded Roy.
