Cricket World Cup: Jason Roy backs England's openers to fire them to win over Sri Lanka
Moeen Ali scored 128 in England's win over Scotland in their last game
Saturday 28 February 2015 21:40, UK
Surrey batsman and England hopeful, Jason Roy, has backed Moeen Ali and Ian Bell to lead England to a World Cup win over Sri Lanka in Wellington on Sunday.
Roy believes England have had the right approach to their opening games at the tournament but just not executed their plans as they’ve slipped to two heavy defeats from their first three games.
“They have the right tactics but they’re just low on confidence,” he told Sky Sports. “It’s a confidence game and as a batsman you have to be thinking ‘you’re not going to get me out’.
“It’s the mindset you need to have but some of our main players don’t seem to be in that space at the moment.
“It’s a difficult one to say from the sofa, ‘this is what is wrong’. You only really know when you’re actually there and you can see what’s going on in the team dressing room.
“But if you look at the side – we’ve got the firepower, we’ve got the guys that can set the game up for us to get over 300 easily.
“It’s a long time to bat 50 overs so you’ve got to give yourself an opportunity to score big. Ian Bell and Moeen Ali – if they get in and bat the distance – they’re going to get big hundreds.
“They’ve got to be aggressive, especially up front against the Sri Lanka bowling attack. If we go hard at them early on, we can take real advantage.”
Roy toured with the England Lions over the winter, and scored 141 off just 110 balls in an unofficial ODI against South Africa A and averaged 65.25 across the five-match series.
He made his debut for England in their T20I against India at Edgbaston in September last year and is looking to add to that tally in 2015.
“Once I got into the England dressing room, I felt comfortable,” added Roy. “I feel like I’m ready for it and so fingers-crossed I get a few more opportunities.
“I’ve just got to train hard, score runs and keep myself there or thereabouts. I keep things pretty simple to be honest – my job is to score runs and hopefully everything else will look after itself.
“I had great fun with the Lions. We all trained really hard before Christmas and I was glad I was able to go out there and show my skills.”
Jason Roy was speaking to Sky Sports after appearing on Game Changers. You can watch Game Changers again On Demand or one of our repeats:
Sunday 1 March, 5am Sky Sports 1
Sunday 1 March, 7am Sky Sports 3
Monday 2 March, 5pm Sky Sports 3
Wednesday 4 March, 8am Sky Sports 1
