Roy welcomes the return of Hales

Jason Roy has welcomed the return of his regular opening partner Alex Hales ahead of the One-Day International (ODI) series against India, and stressed the importance of converting fifties into big scores. 

England’s opening pair warmed up with a stand of 95 as Roy 62 and Hales 40 helped England to a three-wicket win over a a star-studded India A XI at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.

“It’s good fun to have him back, he’s been working hard on his game back at home and it’s good to see him playing some nice shots out there as well. We enjoy batting together,” said Roy.

The England opener placed importance on the pair’s partnership on and off the field.

“He’s a good friend of mine and we know each other’s games pretty well. We bat together in net sessions, in training, and we know what we’re doing wrong and we know what we’re doing right.

“We test ourselves and we push each other, and if we don’t do very well we give each other stick – long may it continue!”

Roy, who has just completed a T20 spell with Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League, stressed the importance of converting half centuries into hundreds in 50-over cricket.

“I was happy with the start but I need to be slightly more greedy, do my job for the side and get a big hundred, I’ve said before many times 60s, 70s, 80s don’t win you games, you need to be getting hundreds and big hundreds as an opener.”

England’s first of two warm-up fixtures ahead of the ODI series opener on Sunday in Pune was a satisfactory exercise according to the Surrey man: “We pride ourselves on our warm-up games and we play every game as hard as we can. The boys bowling to the likes of Dhoni, then us smacking it around a bit was was awesome, good fun!”

England face India in three ODIs and three T20 Internationals.