England star Jason Roy reveals secret behind brilliant hot streak during Australia ODI series

In his three years as an England ODI regular, Jason Roy has been a player of streaks – both hot and cold.

There were two tons in three innings against Sri Lanka in 2016 and successive scores of 73, 82 and 65 against India in 2017. He ended 2017 with 84 and 96 against West Indies, then started this one with 180 – England’s highest score ever – at the MCG. Then there was the stumble – 68 runs in nine innings – last year that saw him dropped for the Champions Trophy semi-final.

Roy has never had a hot streak like the one he has enjoyed in the last week: tons in Cardiff and Durham, with an imperious 82 (ended only by a run out) in the 481 game at Trent Bridge sandwiched between. In Durham, he played a key role in a very special catch – and one which was vital for the course of the game, too – sprinting to take Shaun Marsh at wide long-on, only to launch the ball to Craig Overton, running to 15m away at deep midwicket. His name did not even make it onto the scorecard for that contribution but it certainly did for his sixth international century later in the day.

Roy’s outrageous outlay is reflecting his method; he is waiting for the ball, playing it later, but still hitting it just as hard. Roy believes he has never batted better, and that it is down to hard work.

“[It’s] probably the best headspace I've been in knowing my role in the team, knowing my training and knowing my technique and trusting myself,” he says. “[I haven’t changed anything but] I just kind of force myself to be a bit more comfortable at the crease, a bit more organised. Trying to pace an innings and recognise we've got a lot of time to bat. Not much has changed.

His partnership with Jonny Bairstow is proving particularly fruitful. They have now shared five century stands in 16 innings opening together, already an England record. The partnership only came about due to Alex Hales – who is having to do with life as a stand-in at No3 – going out in Bristol with Ben Stokes in September.

It is proving a strong union; neither player is a designated flyer, but both are taking calculated, cleanly-struck risks.

“If he doesn't want to take risks against one bowler I might want to take risks against them and so forth,” says Roy. “Of course he is [fun to bat with]. He strikes the ball incredibly cleanly especially at this moment in time and he just seems to be in an amazing purple patch which is great for him and the team.

“Me and Halesy had great chemistry, likewise Jonny and Halesy and myself and Jonny and so forth. The nature of the way we play is beneficial to the team.”

When asked if England are surprising themselves with the new heights they have hit against Australia, Roy said: “No, not really. We have put in a lot of hard work and deserve the results we are getting. We are putting in good foundations, starting well, and even today they started really well, had two centurions and we managed to keep them to 310. It’s not a surprise, we are working extremely hard.

“Our main aim is to just make sure that these are just stepping stones to the bigger picture, being the World Cup. It’s great breaking all the records and stuff but at the end of the day, the aim is to have this confidence come the World Cup so we can get some good wins under our belts. The records are fantastic obviously, and it’s a nice reward for the hard work we have out in.”

An example of that hard work is the catch Roy and Overton combined to take. “I was just happy the big fella was charging round to help me! It was great,” he said.

“You have a first look, and realise you are going to get there, then you take a moment to work out if you’re going to chuck it in,” said Roy, explaining the method. “You see out the corner of your eye, he is quite big anyway…. If Craig wasn’t there I would have had to go [throw it] straight up, which would have been quite difficult as my momentum was going the other way.

“We do quite a lot of specific training, especially over the last 10-12 months, we have done a lot of specific stuff - long-on, third man, getting the ball to spin in different ways like it would in a match. We have upped our training with that.