The Desert Vipers have signed England’s ICC Cricket World Cup-winning batter Jason Roy for the remainder of this season’s DP World ILT20.
Roy, 35, arrived in Dubai on Saturday morning and replaces West Indies batter Shimron Hetmyer, who suffered a hamstring injury during the side’s latest match, against Abu Dhabi Knight Riders (ADKR) on Tuesday.
Roy has a wealth of experience, at international level, in franchise cricket around the world and in the DP World ILT20, having previously played two matches for ADKR in Season 2 and a full season for the Sharjah Warriorz in Season 3.
Roy comes into the tournament with recent match action and UAE experience behind him.
He captained the Royal Champs in the Abu Dhabi T10 that wrapped up in late November and then played three matches for the Pakhara Avengers in the Nepal Premier League in early December.
Explaining Roy’s call-up, Desert Vipers Director of Cricket Tom Moody said: “We are extremely disappointed to lose a player of Shimron’s quality and experience as he has played a positive role in our squad this season, but securing someone of Jason’s pedigree and experience certainly softens that blow.
“Jason ticks all the boxes for us. He knows the format inside-out, he is a versatile batter who can go through the gears, he provides us options up and down the order, he has been playing recently and he has experience in the DP World ILT20.
“He has also played in pressure situations, and to have someone like that coming into our squad as the sharp end of the tournament approaches is a real boost for us.”
The right-hander has played five Tests, 116 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 64 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) for his country and was part of Eoin Morgan’s side that won the ICC Cricket World Cup at Lord’s in 2019, when England beat New Zealand in a super over. Roy’s throw from the boundary from the final ball of that super over helped to secure the trophy.
Also key to England’s success in that tournament was Roy’s batting form, as he scored four fifties, plus 153 against Bangladesh in Cardiff, part of a haul of 443 runs in seven innings with a strike-rate of 115.36.
Roy has 12 international hundreds, all scored in ODIs, and his 180 against Australia in Melbourne in 2018 is the second highest score by an England men’s batter in the format. Only Joe Root (19) and Eoin Morgan (13) have more men’s ODI hundreds for England.
He is one of only seven England men’s batters to top 1500 T20I runs and has a strike-rate in that international format of 137.61.
Roy is also one of only 19 men’s players to top 10,000 runs in Twenty20s and currently stands at seventeenth spot in the list of run-makers in the format with 10,554 runs, amassed in 412 matches with six hundreds and 69 fifties and a strike-rate of 139.89.
He has played all around the world on the T20 franchise circuit, lining up for four teams in the Indian Premier League, three sides in both the Big Bash League in Australia and the Bangladesh Premier League, and has also appeared in the Caribbean Premier League, SA20 in South Africa and Major League Cricket in the USA.
Roy has scored more than 4000 runs for Surrey in the T20 Blast, including four hundreds, and has played for Manchester Originals and Southern Brave in the men’s Hundred in England and Wales.
