ASHES 2019

Out-of-position Roy and England's muddled thinking

Jason Roy fell trying to take on Nathan Lyon
Jason Roy fell trying to take on Nathan Lyon ©Getty

Cricket shots have context. They are built up to, they have cause and effect. Players have certain shots that are strengths. They have certain shots that are weaknesses.

Batsmen are given jobs and have instincts. An aggressor might throw his hands at balls outside off-stump. A stayer might leave them alone. Match situations dictate. And whilst it is tempting to view Jason Roy's poor shot on the final day as an aberration, there is a case that it was bound to happen because of the situation he found himself in. After all, cricket shots simply cannot be viewed in isolation.

If they were, Roy's effort on the final morning of this game should - and probably will anyway - receive heavy criticism. It was ugly, running down the pitch to Nathan Lyon and aiming an uncontrolled swipe at the ball. He missed it by a distance and was bowled. It was one of those dismissals which just looks atrocious on TV replays, made worse by England's task being to save the game.

But Roy's shot wasn't just a mistake. There was context to it. The situation he found himself in played a role too. When evaluating his mistake, all of that needs to be unpacked. We might not absolve him of responsibility but we may be able to at least understand why it happened. Because the role Roy has been asked to play in this team is yet another example of England's muddled thinking. It's no wonder then, that he played a muddled shot.

Firstly, he has been picked in England's Test team as an opener despite playing all of his recent red-ball cricket in the middle order for Surrey. He is batting in an unfamiliar role, learning on the job. As Joe Root said after the game: "Over the course of the two games, he's found himself in some situations which don't lend [themselves] to his style." Quite why he has been placed in those situations is anyone's guess.

He has also been selected to be an aggressor after doing it so successfully for England's white-ball teams. That is his role in this team and the basis of his game. Roy's shot today was him staying true to himself. And his captain wants him to continue in that vein.

"Jason's been picked to play in a certain manner," Root said after play. "It's really important when he gets further opportunities, he continues to keep trying to put pressure back on Australia and especially Nathan Lyon. You saw a very short snippet of what he can do if the game situation allows. He could change the game very quickly in our favour."

It is not so simple, of course. Players have to bend and adapt their games to the situation of the match. What was the situation today? Simply, England had to bat out 90 overs. Defence and defiance. That is usually what Test match openers have to show but given the approach Roy has been asked to take and the player he is, he has a conundrum. How does he marry his role as the aggressor with the need to absorb pressure? How does he do it with his captain wanting him to play aggressively? Bend and adapt you may say but two decades worth of instinct is not easy to unstitch.

There is also the context of the lead up to his dismissal. Lyon was bowling outside off-stump to both Roy and Root, finding sharp turn. No right hander looked comfortable staying in their crease and defending. At one stage, Root padded up to a ball which spun back into him and arguably should have been given out LBW, not playing a shot. It was not easy to simply thrust a pad or bat at the ball and hope for the best. Root did that later and was caught at short leg.

Instead, in the previous two overs, Roy and Root had sensed a moment to put some pressure back on Lyon. Root swept him for four and then used his feet to knock him into the leg side. It was controlled aggression. Roy, following suit, swept Lyon hard too and then drove him past mid-off from the crease. More controlled aggression. It was England trying to make Lyon change his tactics and take the close catchers out of the equation. It was a workable plan.

And just before Roy got out, Tim Paine had changed the field. As Nasser Hussain picked up on commentary, Australia moved leg slip out and put another man back for the sweep. A close catcher had been removed but it meant, as Hussain explained, that the sweep was more risky now if Roy got a top edge. Australia and Lyon had changed their plan. England had made them do that as they had wanted but one type of shot had been taken out of the equation.

So the context was this: an aggressor picked to be an aggressor. An unfamiliar situation of having to bat out for the draw. A middle order player opening the batting. A decision by Root and Roy to take the initiative. Instincts honed over many years telling him to take Lyon on. A field change which ruled out the sweep.

In the light of all that, the decision Roy made was understandable. It might not have been the right one - and nothing will make it a good one - but, in a way, it was perhaps even inevitable that Roy would look to play the shot he did.

The execution, however, badly let him down. He did not get to the pitch of the ball. Instead of realising that and thrusting his pad at it - there was no threat of LBW that far down - he carried on with the shot anyway. Because he wasn't close enough to it, his lost his shape. His head wasn't over the ball. The ball spun and he wasn't in a position to stop it beating him.

The effect of Roy's dismissal was an England collapse. It began a procession of wickets and the wind was taken out of their sails. A solid start - albeit not without worry - was suddenly turned into yet another deck-of-cards moment. The pressure went from being slightly turned towards Australia to glaring down on England with all its weight. It was a harsh lesson.

But it was also a wider lesson for England. Their batting has been muddled for a while. Fitting square pegs in round holes has been a constant theme. Personnel changes have been frequent. Are they any closer to knowing the best positions for Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow? England have tried dashers like Roy and Alex Hales as openers. They have tried more traditional red-ball openers like Keaton Jennings and Mark Stoneman. They have tried Root at four, three, four, three, four and back to three again. Jack Leach even opened the batting last week.

Given this perpetual state of flux, is it any wonder they get muddled thinking and poor execution? Is it any wonder that meaningless phrases like "express yourself", which England's players and coaches use with regularity, causes mistakes like Roy's? Is it a surprise that a natural aggressor, batting in a strange position, in a strange situation, and with the role of England's pressure exerter would play such a shot?

Roy didn't have to play it of course. But it's understandable that he did.

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