Jason Roy reflects on a lean 2022 after hitting a 79-ball-hundred against South Africa 

It’s the morning after last night, and Jason Roy is suffering from lack of sleep. Five hours is his estimate, having gone to bed with mixed emotions. These past turbulent months, he says, have been plagued with doubt.

Roy entered the series against South Africa without 50 in 14 international innings, and under pressure to show he still had the game to serve England in their World Cup defense this autumn, amid growing competition for places in the top top of the order.

His response at Manguang Oval on Friday, as dusk was overcome by a lightening sky, was to hit not like a man with something to lose, but like one who has everything to gain, hitting a hundred for 79 balls. He had reconnected with the alpha male within him.

Jason Roy scored a striking hundred from just 71 balls in England’s ODI loss to South Africa

The blow came after 14 caps without 50 for the World Cup winner.

“I tried to assert myself, which I don’t think I’ve done for a period of time, so it was a nice feeling to go out and be myself: chew some gum, give it the full bravado, say a few things to the opposition, engage in a little bit of the fight,’ Roy revealed, adding that a conversation with former Surrey teammate Kevin Pietersen before the 27-run loss helped shape his plan.

We talk about being free, not worrying about the outcome, just playing my game. The top of my game is better than a lot of bowlers can do to me, so it was just about being positive.

‘The most important thing for me was going out on my own terms. How do I want to be remembered in the game? Do I want to be remembered as a guy who had a great career, hit it everywhere, and then all of a sudden had a shitty year or whatever and was a completely different player? Do I want to be remembered as that, or as a guy who went out and attacked the bowlers?’

England will have the chance to defend their ODI crown in India later this year.

The year 2022 provided Roy with many mental health challenges, but having turned to Surrey psychologist Andrea Furst for help, he arrived here for SA20 earlier this month in a good place, and contrary to a sequence of just 100 runs in eight innings. , in good shape to boot.

“Last year, I came back from the Pakistan Super League playing the best cricket I’ve ever played in a T20 competition, scoring hundreds and enjoying the atmosphere,” he said.

But I came back from there and all of a sudden I hit some kind of… whatever. I withdrew from the Indian Premier League because I needed to work on a lot of things in my head. A couple of months later I started to be happier as a person. My cricket wasn’t doing well, but I was a happier person so I didn’t really give a damn, to be honest.

“But then cricket kept going bad – the Hundred happened, which was a disaster, and then I was taken out of the T20 World Cup squad and lost my core contract, put on an incremental contract.

Roy mentioned speaking with Kevin Pietersen (right) to help share his plan for the game.

So, it was all these things, it was like an avalanche of shitty things happening over and over again. You start to doubt yourself as a player…you become reserved, which is not me.’

He says missing out on England’s chance to become double world champions in Australia in November was a “hammer blow” but at the age of 32 he has come to have a more mature perspective on the younger models lining up to take his place.

“Being where he was mentally, and the guys tearing him apart, it wasn’t easy at first, but then you realize that was me once, and the journey they’re embarking on is incredibly special,” Roy said. , after his 11th ODI hundred.

‘Someone like Will Jacks, who I’ve spent a lot of time with, has had an incredible leap in the last year or so.

‘The initial feeling was “oh shit, these guys are outplaying me.” But then it’s “get your head in. You’ve had a great run, you’re playing well, if it stops tomorrow, I’ve had a lot of fun.”