Jason Roy was "gutted" after being axed by England ahead of the T20 World Cup, Managing Director of Men's Cricket Rob Key has revealed.
Roy was a high-profile omission from the squad, but England felt like they could not take a "gamble on him finding form" after the 32-year-old experienced such a lean summer. In six T20Is for England, Roy scored just 76 runs from 98 balls and then managed just 51 runs off 51 balls in six innings in The Hundred.
As a result, England were planning to promote Jonny Bairstow up the order to open alongside captain Jos Buttler at the World Cup. However, those plans have been scuppered after Bairstow suffered a lower limb injury in a freak accident while playing golf mere hours after the squad was announced.
"It's unfortunate timing, he's hit a bad patch of form at the worst time," Key said of the decision to drop Roy. "The game is about confidence as much as anything else. We'd be taking a gamble on him finding form."
Buttler was the one who delivered the bad news to Roy, before the opener spoke with both Key and white-ball coach Matthew Mott about what the future held for him. "He was obviously very disappointed, I think 'gutted' was the phrase he used," Key added.
"He wanted to make sure this wasn't the end. I certainly don't think that this is the end of Jason Roy. I don't see it by any stretch that his T20 career is over."
England are also hoping to "get the best out of Ben Stokes " by batting him in the top four, even though the all-rounder will enter the World Cup having not played a T20I since March last year. "The knock-on effect of everything we're doing is that hopefully Ben Stokes has a more fulfilled role," Key said.
"I think that will get the best out of him in those big games. Having him come in later doesn't get the best out of Ben Stokes. There's a great line in his documentary where they say 'the big moments find him' and you want to give him that opportunity.
"I don't think we've done that in T20 cricket. I'd like to get Ben up the order a little bit in T20 cricket, I feel generally we haven't quite found his best role. All of a sudden Ben Stokes has a chance to influence a game."
