Trevor Bayliss backs Jason Roy to rediscover best form as England prepare to keep faith with opener

Trevor Bayliss has urged Jason Roy to draw on his early experiences for England to rediscover his best form in the Champions Trophy.

Roy goes into the tournament having passed 20 only once in his past eight one-day international innings.

He has also struggled to gather momentum this season. After an unsuccessful spell in the Indian Premier League with Gujarat Lions, Roy has played only two Royal London One-Day Cup games for Surrey.

Yet Bayliss, the England coach, is confident Roy can react well in adversity. In his first full series with England, against New Zealand in 2015, Roy went for a diamond duck on his debut and ended the five-match campaign with a top score of only 39.

Despite his slow start, Bayliss and captain Eoin Morgan were impressed that Roy stuck to his aggressive style, always playing for the team rather than himself.

Notwithstanding the claims of Jonny Bairstow, who made 51 in yesterday’s seven-wicket defeat by South Africa at Lord’s, Morgan seems determined to keep faith with Roy for the first game of the tournament, against Bangladesh at The Kia Oval on Thursday.

Bayliss said: “We stuck with him and he came good so he has got that behind him and he knows what works for him. Jason is a guy who is always talking positively.

“It is hard to know what is going on inside a player’s head — I think he is the only one who really knows what’s going on in there. But in that New Zealand series when he first started, he made some low scores, but he was playing in the right manner, in the way the captain wanted him to play.”

Bayliss and Morgan will meet tomorrow to discuss the team for the match against Bangladesh but it would be a surprise to see Roy omitted.

Morgan was even more supportive of the 26-year-old. He said: “Is it important we don’t make last-minute changes? Yes, it’s the hardest thing to tell Jonny he’s not playing, especially when he has done nothing wrong.

“He scores a huge amount of runs for us. As regards selection, Jason is the No1 pick at the moment. He and Alex Hales have been our opening pair for quite a long time. They have had ups and downs but ultimately they have played in the fashion we have played as a team, and they have been very important to us.”

Despite trying to play down the situation, England are anxious about the fitness of Ben Stokes, their star all-rounder.

Stokes was due to have a second scan on his left knee tonight to try to determine why he is struggling to bowl at full tilt without feeling pain.

Stokes was rested at Lord’s but in the first two matches of the South Africa series, at Headingley and Southampton, he was able to bowl only five overs.

Even if Stokes cannot bowl, he will play as a batsman alone, after scoring a match-winning century at Southampton. Yet if they are to win the Champions Trophy, England are likely to need Stokes at his best with ball in hand.

Bayliss added: “It is a strange one. He can run around as usual in the field like a mad man, and he scored a hundred over the weekend and did not even feel it. It just seems to happen when he is bowling at full pace. Hopefully, that means it is not much and it will come good after a couple more days.”

Bayliss is similarly optimistic about Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali, who did not play at Lord’s yesterday because of minor injuries.

Both are expected to play at The Oval, as is Mark Wood, the fast bowler who has suffered persistent ankle problems throughout his career.

Wood was also rested at Lord’s but his extra pace is a key element of England’s strategy.