Follow UsJason Roy might be struggling for runs but former England captain Kevin Pietersen has urged the team management to back England’s “best player” ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.
The right-handed opener has managed only 206 runs in 11 T20Is this year and he has done at a horrible strike rate of 104. On top of that, Roy has commenced his Hundred campaign with the Oval Invincibles with scores of 0 and 10.
"Jason has just turned 32 years old. What I'm sick and tired of in this country is the journalists writing people off at such a young age," Pietersen said on Sky Sports.
"Jason Roy's a World Cup winner, He's done an unbelievable job for Eoin Morgan. He was told by Morgan to go out and smack that ball. Now with smacking the ball and being a risk taker, you are going to fail. And when you start failing, failing could happen for a long time.
"If Rob Key (managing director of England cricket) is listening to this, he is your best player and he has been your best player for a number of years. What they should be saying and I think this is actually what's happening behind the scenes, back your best players."
England are scheduled to play seven T20Is against Pakistan prior to the World Cup and Pietersen believes it won't be too long before Roy returns back to his best. "Leave Roy now. Give Roy the opportunity, through The Hundred, through those T20s to find form again.
"Back him! They've done it with Zak Crawley in Test matches, Ben Stokes has said categorically that Crawley will play for the rest of the season. They need to do that with Jason Roy in the T20 team."
Oval Invincibles skipper Sam Billings too feels the same. "He's a world-class player. We've seen him for so long dominate attacks.
"It's only a matter of time before he gets going. Today he's middled one straight to fine leg. It will turn, he's too good not to turn. We keep on getting him playing that positive way, getting us off to a great start."