Flair and confidence: The importance of Jason Roy

NICK FRIEND: In a curious sense, some of the firmest logic in favour of Roy’s selection comes in what has preceded him. It is almost a surprise that it has taken so long for a man with an unhinged level of talent to be given his opportunity

There are few who understand the tantalising existence of facing the new ball in Test cricket quite like Desmond Haynes – the hardest place to bat, but the most rewarding. Both the setter of a tone and a human shield, there is a two-pronged responsibility attached to those presented with this chalice of poison and gold.

One half of the game’s most fearsome duo through the 1980s, Haynes and Gordon Greenidge mastered the artform. They were a team almost without fault; technical deficiencies were covered by a mental superiority. Miss your length, miss your line, prepare to be punished.

Quite simply, their relationship was a peerless stand; in the history of the five-day game, no first-wicket pair has accumulated more runs, none has passed fifty on more occasions. Their 16 century partnerships are untouched – one clear of Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe.

Almost three decades on from their final shared stride to the middle, their hold remains unblemished; they sit more than 800 runs clear of their closest rivals – the Australian pair of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer.

Directly below them sit Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook – a reminder of an era that feels almost a lifetime ago. A different time, when English cricket possessed an opening pair for the ages, two men whose names were etched onto teamsheets as one, as a single entity, conjoined by their shared goal, defined by a common purpose. Where one went, the other followed.

Since that axis was broken, however, what was once one of world cricket’s steadiest ships has become a leaking tanker. What was a cruise – a voyage taken for granted – has turned to choppier waters. Where turbulence was a rarity, it lives now as the norm.

Even before the axis of England’s two left-handed former captains, stability atop the order had been an unusual standard at a time when team selections were often tempestuous, varied and inconsistent.

Strauss and Marcus Trescothick sit twelfth on the all-time list of Test history’s most successful opening stands, with Trescothick’s previous partnership with Michael Vaughan the fourteenth most effective. If one is to rewind a generation, the story is the same.

The 1990s – one of English cricket’s toughest decades, yet the top order remained a rare constant. Michael Atherton and Graham Gooch, Atherton and Alec Stewart, Atherton and Mark Butcher, Atherton and Trescothick. All four axes plundered more than 1,000 runs each in Test cricket.

And now, here lies an opposite time. The highest average of any England opener since Andrew Strauss’ retirement belongs to Jack Leach – the kind of anomalous statistic to skew such a chart, but also the sort to highlight an absurd situation. Twenty men have opened the batting for England since 2009; just four have averaged north of 35 – of that quartet, both Strauss and Cook have retired.

It is why, for Haynes, a man for whom this is nothing if not a specialist subject, the selection of Jason Roy was the only plausible move.

^{Alastair Cook handed Jason Roy his Test cap at Lord's}

“My theory has always been that if you can bat, you can play T20 cricket,” begins the West Indies icon. “If you can bat, you can play 50-over cricket. If you can bat, you can play Test cricket. It doesn’t matter.

“I think Roy deserves to play; he has got all the talent and the flair. It is just a matter of your mental approach adapting to the longer version of the game. It’s not fair to say that he doesn’t have the technique to play Test cricket.

“I think he should play. The two openers who came over to the West Indies, I wasn’t impressed at all. When I saw Roy in the World Cup, I think we get a little bit too confused nowadays and we try to complicate the game a little too much.

“In the old days, we had to play one-day games between Test matches. It was important for you to be a complete batsman and learn to adapt. You would be playing a Test match and then all of a sudden, you’d go and play two ODIs in Australia and then come back after the ODIs and play the second Test match.

“Back in those days, we didn’t send the one-day cricketers over. You had to play the cricketers that you had, who were the best cricketers. It’s about getting to understand what game you’re playing.”

Of his own partnership with Greenidge, he explains the key to their collective success - a comprehension of what it meant to open the batting, an awareness of the role's impact on their colleagues.

"I think with Gordon and myself, the whole idea is that acceptance and understanding of your role," he reflects. "I always thought Gordon was better than me.

"There was not a situation where I was going to try and outdo Gordon. The team depended on us to build a partnership to make life a lot easier for the guys coming in down the order – not that you had to do much to make life easier for Viv.

"We had a very good rapport; I understood how Gordon played and he understood my game. We never used to call that much with our running; we had a lot of eye contact. That’s one of the things that – even when I’m coaching – I always tell the guys. Even with a helmet on that might not help your vision, it’s still good to look the guy in the face. If you look the guy in the eye, you can see the intent – you can see if he’s really interested in running or not."

Roy remains an intriguing case; the quirks of England’s Test victory against Ireland meant that the Surrey batsman only opened the batting in the first innings – an unconvincing knock that saw the 29-year-old dismissed by Tim Murtagh, having already been reprieved on one occasion thanks to a Mark Adair no-ball.

Even his second effort began as a skittish, chaotic clamber for rhythm as England's latest opener attmepted to settle on this most historic stage.

In a curious sense, the firmest logic in favour of Roy’s selection comes in what has preceded him. It is almost a surprise that it has taken so long for a man with an unhinged level of talent to be given his opportunity, especially England's propensity for a sometimes reckless aggression.

^{Des Haynes shared an iconic opening partneship in Test cricket with Gordon Greenidge}

Others have come and gone; none have nailed down their position. It marks the first time this century that both opening spots have been up for grabs. There is no incumbent. Rory Burns is the man in possession, but it is a temporary hold. Now heading into his fourth series as an England player, the promise he showed in both Sri Lanka and West Indies has yet to convert itself into a major tangible contribution.

Roy’s first-class average of 38.39 is by no means spectacular, but nor is it enough to discourage the thinking behind his presence in the squad. To a degree, however, to consider Roy’s statistics is to miss the point.

Some players, quite simply, are built for international cricket. Roy, a swashbuckling combination of brute and brawn, eases into that category. Three hours of Jason Roy and England will likely be well-placed - hardly flawless logic, but an enticing proposition. It is a gamble of sorts, of course.

If he has always possessed the talent, he has added substance to his style in recent times, culminating in his World Cup efforts. Of England's 15-man party for that tournament, only Roy and Jofra Archer had never played Test cricket.

Speaking prior to England's 143-run win over Ireland, Burns recalled his first impression of Roy. In all likelihood, the childhood friends will walk out together in Birmingham - two men who have risen together, from district age-group cricket to an Ashes series.

“Even just growing up as a kid, you saw Jason hit the ball and strike the ball and he’d do things that other kids couldn’t do," Burns reflected. That, for England, is the crux of it. In the absence of any surety in the capacity of others, Roy stands out as a potential match-winner, a bet worth placing.

If Roy's 153 against Bangladesh was a feast of strokeplay, arrogance and self-belief, his 85 against Australia at Edgbaston was, perhaps, the moment that secured his place in this Ashes squad.

The manner in which he plundered his runs – driving, pulling, thwacking Australia’s pantomime villains to all parts – was a reel of his own greatest hits. Moreover, though, it was the staunch of his defence –an unbreachable barrier – that will have encouraged England.

^{Roy made 72 in the second innings of the Test against Ireland}

Of course, different formats bring different challenges. Australia have already had their say. Josh Hazlewood, who wasn’t a member of his country’s World Cup squad but will likely lead the line for the visitors when the series gets underway at Edgbaston, taunted Roy, comparing him to his compatriot Aaron Finch – a white-ball teammate of Roy at Surrey, who struggled in the five-day arena.

“We'll see how Roy goes in Test cricket,” Hazlewood said. “He has only played one Test match and it's a lot different opening the batting in a Test than a one-day game, that's for sure.

“In England, opening is probably the toughest place to bat which probably made Alastair Cook's record all the better. To play attacking cricket in those conditions is tough.

“Aaron Finch found it tough last summer against a quality India attack on wickets that didn't do too much to be honest. I think he found it a big step up.

“He found the ball swung and seamed around and the wickets were a lot different to a one-day wicket. He'd played a lot of his four-day cricket at five or six and I think Roy is the same at Surrey. It's hard to bat five at a level below and then open in Test cricket. We'll see.”

For Haynes, however, the key is confidence. Roy has never wanted for that particular characteristic. Given his own run of scores – a freedom of spirit that began to show itself in England’s second innings against Ireland, there may be no better time for him to be unleashed into the lions’ den.

“Cricketers go by form,” Haynes adds. “If we are playing well, we feel like we can do anything. That’s the nature of the beast.

“Sometimes, what we don’t do is select people when they’re playing well because the opportunities don’t present themselves or there might be a situation where we are giving another person another go because it would be wrong to change the team at this time.

“When you play well, you look back and they’ve got three slips and two gullies, but you don’t think you’re going to edge it. When you’re struggling, you look back and there’s one slip, but you think you’re going to hit it straight to him."

Of those two approaches to life, you sense that Roy lives for the former. He won't die wondering.

The Cricket Legends of Barbados Museum, located next to the Kensington Oval, reflects Barbadian cricketers who excelled in the game of cricket on the world stage playing for the West Indies teams over the last 100 years