“I just had to put myself first” - Jason Roy on his decision to pull out of IPL 2024

Jason Roy had a good stint with Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2023, scoring 285 runs at an average of almost 36 and a strike rate of 151.59. That impact led to the franchise retaining him for the IPL 2024, only for the English batter to skip the tournament for the second time in three years, citing personal reasons. KKR then went ahead and signed Roy’s compatriot Phil Salt as a replacement for this edition.

While that decision led to a lot of furor on social media against England players who constantly pull out of IPL after opting for it in the auction, Roy, speaking to The Athlete's Voice podcast, cited his mental health and physical fitness as the major reason behind deciding not to return to the IPL 2024. As a matter of fact, the former English opener has been a non-stop occurrence in all T20 leagues around the world. 

"Missing this year's IPL was a huge decision, I think. KKR put so much trust in me by retaining me after a decent year last year and being available for them throughout the year and all the other competitions, you know, I felt like I owe them a huge amount,” Roy said on the podcast.

“It was a very big decision, but a decision I came to just because it was my daughter's fifth birthday as soon as our first game was, there were a few things going on, I was quite tired after the start of my year.

"I've come off the back of not a huge amount of cricket, so the last couple of months have really taken it out of me. And so I was very honest to KKR and we've got a fantastic relationship, so we were able to come to an agreement and stuff like that on why I wasn't coming. They completely understood so I'm very grateful to them for that. But I just had to put myself first, you know, just mindset and body."

Roy was bought by Gujarat Titans in IPL 2022, but he had pulled out afterward. Roy revealed that his pull out from the 2024 edition was different from that of 2022 - in which he had found himself in a very dark place. 

"A couple of years ago, I went through an extremely bad patch with my mindset," he said. "With my mental health and stuff, and I pulled out of the IPL when I was signed with Gujarat, and you know that was for a completely different reason. That was because I was in a dark place, I was in a shocking headspace, and it was sort of my own doing.

"I kind of said to myself, 'I'm okay, I'm okay', and I kept going, and I kept playing, and I stayed away from home. And you know, I ended up just shooting myself in the foot. This year and from that point, I basically said to myself, I'm just going to listen to my head, listen to my heart and figure it out from there on in.

"That was a huge learning curve for me, to be able to make decisions like I have this year, you know, and it can look a certain way. But it's nothing to do with anyone else, it's absolutely nothing to do with anyone else.

"It's your decision - I've got a young family, I'm a grown man and I've made the decision off the back of a lot of thoughts. I've not just woken up one morning and thought, 'You know what - I actually don't feel like getting on that flight to India'. A lot of thought has gone into it, and yeah, it's become far easier to talk about and a far easier decision, just because you know, especially from past experiences, what that can do to you," the Surrey batter added.