Temperament One of Roy's Biggest Strengths at the Moment: Morgan

Cardiff, June 9 (PTI) England captain Eoin Morgan feels a significant improvement in temperament has led opener Jason Roy to stellar success in the last two years.

Roy smashed his sixth ODI century in the last 18 months to get England back to winning ways in the World Cup here on Saturday.

After a player of the series effort in the warm-up ODI series against Pakistan, Roy is in a rich vein of form that contrasts markedly with his efforts two years ago in the Champions Trophy.

Out of form and, by the semi-final, out of the side, Roy has had to earn his way back in at the top of the order alongside Jonny Bairstow. And after hitting 153 to set a total out of Bangladesh's reach, his skipper paid tribute to Roy's development on the big stage.

"Probably one of his biggest strengths at the moment is his temperament. It might surprise a lot of people, me saying that, but if you look at the guy as he's matured from a county cricketer into the full-blown international cricketer he is now," said Morgan.

"The temperament he shows at different stages of his innings and how he goes about picking off his boundaries and the areas in which he scores; I think from the start of his international cricket to right now, I think there's a considerable difference."

Morgan explained why Roy is such a handy player for England.

"To be honest, it's a luxury to have him, because probably particularly you guys more than anybody, and then people in the general, you know, cricket fans talk about scoring hundreds.

"He's an exception to the rule that just goes on and gets big scores, and it can range from 140 or 180, and the rate he gets it at, just he's so difficult to defend. He scores all the way around the ground. He takes really good bowlers down, as well. He hits good balls for boundaries."

The only blot on England's copybook appeared to be an injury to Jos Buttler during his majestic half-century that prevented him from taking the field in the second innings.

But Morgan allayed any fears over the wicket-keeper's hip problem, calling the decision to remove him ‘precautionary' with England's next game against the West Indies at the Hampshire Bowl, Southampton, not until Friday.

Morgan meanwhile added that after defeat to Pakistan at Trent Bridge, his side have turned a corner.

"It was probably an improvement on the other day. Right throughout the whole game, right from the start, just the platform we started with, obviously it changed. We continued to lose wickets throughout our innings against Pakistan.

"Today that opening stand really did lay a solid platform. I don't think it was that easy up front. We were trying to score runs, but we didn't go anywhere."

Jofra Archer and Mark Wood then bowled with serious pace in Bangladesh's reply to secure a 106-run victory, much to Morgan's delight.

"Yeah, it's unbelievable, and I think probably the slow nature of the pitch made it more difficult to play.

"The way Jofra finished, as well. Obviously we've seen him start extremely well, coming back in the middle and towards the end, not under any pressure but obviously we'd like to bowl them out to try to get our rate up for the tournament. We wanted to bowl them out. From about the 44th over, he wanted the ball," he added. PTI

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