T20 World Cup: Not having Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer is a shame, says England opener Jason Roy

England opener Jason Roy says not having the services of stalwarts Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup will be a big shame but they still have enough firepower in the squad to win the tournament.

Stokes has been on a break from cricket to focus on improving his mental health and recover from a finger injury while Archer made himself unavailable for the mega event in the United Arab Emirates due to the recurrence of a stress fracture in his right elbow.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a problem — it’s a shame. It’s definitely a shame, not having those two here but you know they’re on the same path of getting fit and healthy again,” Roy, who will be turning out for Delhi Bulls in the Abu Dhabi T10 league, said during a virtual interaction here.

England have another injury setback in all-rounder Sam Curran who has been ruled out with a lower-back injury, sustained during the IPL. His brother Tom Curran has been drafted into the England squad as his replacement, while Reece Topley has also been added as a travelling reserve.

Roy however said it’s not a worry for them as they have enough in their bench strength to go all the way.

“You look at our depth of the squad now, the players we have, and it’s still extremely impressive. The boys showed that they have done well in the warm up game, and they’ve been training extremely hard, so I don’t think it’s a worry at all.

“We’ve got players that will definitely 100 per cent step up, rise to the occasion. They have more than enough skill. I can tell you that from training, There’s more than enough skill that can take us all the way.”

If the second leg of IPL in UAE was any indication, the English players struggled to adapt to the sluggish pitches on offer.

But the 31-year-old chose to differ.

“I don’t think so. We’ve shown our skill on most tracks. The pitches aren’t horrendous, they’re just a bit slow, so that’s not a problem.

“The amount of training we’ve had, the camp we had, and then obviously a lot of the boys playing in the IPL, so there’s a lot of feedback, knowledge going around about how to combat whatever you might come across.

“So now I think the boys have the skill to combat whatever pitch was supplied with,” he asserted.
Boasting an impressive T20I strike-rate of 145.66, Roy said they would feel at ease, having played in the IPL at same venues.

“Coming from IPL 2021 to T20 World Cup 2021 has a lot of benefits. We have a feel of things, training and playing on these pitches, spending a lot of time interacting with players from other teams. Boys who have played in the IPL have a big advantage.”

England have growing concerns about world No. 1 T20I batsman Dawid Malan who struggled in the slow tracks in the two warm-up matches against India and New Zealand and scored 18 (18 balls) and 11 (15 balls) respectively.