Morgan hints Bairstow could replace Roy

Jonny Bairstow appears likely to replace Jason Roy in the England XI for the first semi-final of the Champions Trophy against Sri Lanka in Cardiff, although Eoin Morgan stopped short of confirming the change.

Bairstow had a hit in the nets on the eve of the match while Roy stood near the boundary ropes, fielding the balls while watching his teammates practise. Roy hasn’t made a half-century in the last nine ODI innings.

“There's a chance we could make a change,” said Morgan on Tuesday. “Obviously we won't announce the team until the toss, but there's a chance there could be a change. I mentioned after the last game that we're getting to the business end of the tournament and we need to produce results. So it's important that we get what we feel is our best XI to win the win the game tomorrow in order to win the tournament.”

The change – if and when it happens – would be well deserved for Bairstow. He has often been a replacement man for England, but has embraced every opportunity; his last four ODI scores are 56, 10*, 72* and 51.

“He's a fantastic batsman,” assessed Morgan. “I think his best attribute, certainly in white ball cricket over the last year and a half, has been his relentless attitude to score runs regardless of the situation. When you have guys sitting on the sideline, they can get a little bit upset, and that can affect their performance when the actual chance comes along. But that doesn't seem to affect Jonny.

“One innings he did play for us, which won us a series was against New Zealand in sort of a match-winning knock. That sort of sums him up. He came from playing in Yorkshire to coming straight into the squad, having played no part in the series, and came in and produced a match-winning knock (81*). I think his all-around ability is as good as we have in this squad. But like I've mentioned before, it's a very difficult team to get into, and you've just got to wait for that chance.”

Bairstow will have a different role on Wednesday, as he is likely to open in international cricket for the first time. He has, however, been a successful opener in domestic cricket for Yorkshire.

Morgan was confident Bairstow would be ready, once again adding, ‘if’ he gets the opportunity. But Mickey Arthur, the Pakistan coach, said it was a change Pakistan wouldn’t mind.

“We had a discussion in the bus this morning. I was particularly worried that Roy hadn't fired yet because I think he's very close to something quite good,” said Arthur. “So if he's not playing, that wouldn't be too bad.

“Bairstow is a great player. The only thing I will say, I know that Bairstow has opened at county level, but he's never done it internationally, and I think that's a different ball game.”

The switch at the top is a change from Morgan’s strong backing of Roy, but the captain stressed all players from the current group were an integral part of England’s plans for the long run.

“I back all my players. I see the best in them, and I believe in them a huge amount,” said Morgan. “And every one of the selectors does, every one of the back room staff does, and the players too, obviously. Getting to this stage of the tournament, we need results, and if that means somebody misses out, it's unfortunate, but for the team's sake, we need to get results. We want to win this tournament.

“We have kept the same policy for two years now. If somebody does get left out, they're not going to be far from our plans. They're certainly going to be in the same group of players gearing towards the 2019 World Cup. Certainly, in white ball cricket, we have a collective group that I don't see us venturing that far out of towards that World Cup because we need to get experience under the guys' belts.

“We've had a little bit of success, and we've played the right brand of cricket, but getting games under guys' belts in order to win a World Cup is very important because, when you get to the latter stages of a World Cup, you need to have, say, 100 games under your belt in order to produce your best at that stage.”

Talking about the more immediate challenge, Morgan was confident his batsmen had plans against Pakistan’s strong bowling attack. He was, however, wary of the conditions and in particular the used wicket, which might make England deviate from its preferred choice of chasing when it wins the toss.

“We're comfortable with a used wicket, but the nature of this tournament is that the further the tournament goes on, the more you play on used pitches,” he said. “We've come up against it before. We've raised this before the tournament started with the team, the challenges that we might have to come up against, and it is one of them.

“I'd rather lose the toss, I think. I'm not sure. Honestly not sure. Because it's a used wicket, because it's an early start, it draws different factors. If the weather's as good as it's supposed to be, yeah, I'm not sure. We'll have to turn up tomorrow and see how dry the wicket is.”