Exclusive | 'You’ll never be overconfident going to play India in India': England opener Jason Roy

With both teams out of the race as far as the ICC World Test Championship is concerned and no red-ball action for the next four months, India and England shift their focus to the limited-overs formats starting with the first of five Twenty20 Internationals at Kolkata’s iconic Eden Gardens on Wednesday.

England’s limited-overs tour of India will be crucial for both teams in their preparation for the ICC Champions Trophy, which takes place in February and March in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. And from the visiting team’s perspective, it will also be the beginning of the ‘Bazball’ era in the white-ball formats .

The tour, after all, will be Brendon McCullum’s first assignment since he replaced Matthew Mott as the limited-overs head coach and merged it with the red-ball job that he took over in the summer of 2022.

Team India, on the other hand, will be desperate to put smiles on the faces of their fans after their disastrous run in Tests recently. The Rohit Sharma-led side had failed to qualify for the ICC World Test Championship final after suffering a 0-3 whitewash against New Zealand at home followed by a 1-3 series defeat in Australia.

Indian cricket has also been affected by a myriad of off-field issues in the last couple of months with the spotlight firmly on captain Rohit and head coach Gautam Gambhir.

‘You’ll never be overconfident going to play India in India’

England opener Jason Roy, however, feels all the negativity in recent months, especially in the aftermath of the tour of Australia, will affect Team India’s performance in the upcoming limited-overs fixtures, especially at home.

“This India series will be a fantastic series. It’s going to be hard-fought cricket and a huge stepping block for the Champions Trophy,” Roy, who is currently representing Sharjah Warriorz in the third season of the ILT20, told Firstpost.

“You can never, ever, ever write off an Indian team mate. They’re full of superstars, full of match-winners as well, and guys who play on the biggest stage possible. So you can never obviously write them off, you’ll never be overconfident going to play India in India.

“It’s a different experience, it’s extremely tough, and I think it’s going to be a very interesting series, one that’s hard to call really. But India, they’ve got a point to prove, but England have a point to prove as well. So it’s going to be good fun,” added the South African-born opener, who represented England in 116 ODIs and 64 T20Is besides five Tests, the latest of those appearances coming in early 2023.

India haven’t had too many collecting performances of note in Tests and ODIs but were by far the standout team in Twenty20 Internationals last year – winning 24 out of 26 matches and also lifting the T20 World Cup for a second time.

England, on the other hand, haven’t quite been the dominant force in limited-overs cricket, or even in Tests if one looks closely, in the last couple of years, with Jos Buttler’s men failing to defend their ODI and T20 world titles in 2023 and 2024 respectively. More recently, they had suffered series loss against Australia at home and in the West Indies.

Roy, though, feels England’s recent white-ball struggles will have no bearing on their upcoming assignments, especially the Champions Trophy where they have finished runners-up twice in eight editions.

“Having been close friends with Jos, he holds high hopes for the team as always. I think as an international cricket side, they will be full of confidence, they’ve got a fantastic squad together and match-winners all the way down the batting order. So, there’s absolutely no reason why they can’t go out there and put their best foot forward and perform to the best of their ability.

“Obviously the last tournament didn’t go how they had planned, but that’s last tournament. From my experience, being with England, we’ve always looked forward, we always took one step forward and after a defeat we never really looked back too much at things.

“Of course as individuals, you want to get better and look back at where you can get better, but as a team, you just look forward and look forward to the next competition. I think the boys will be very excited,” added Roy, who picked India and Australia as potential semi-finalists in the upcoming Champions Trophy besides England.

‘It’s an exciting time for English cricket’

Roy added that the presence of match-winners all the way down the batting order is what makes Buttler and company such a formidable side despite their recent struggles. Among those match-winners to keep an eye on in the upcoming limited-overs tour of India as well as the Champions Trophy is Barbados-born batting all-rounder Jacob Bethell who has quickly established himself across formats since his international debut in September.

“X-factor is match-winners all the way down the batting line-up. You’ve got guys there that can strike at over 120 in a 50-over game and strike at 200 in a T20 game. It’s an exciting time for English cricket, some youngsters coming in and are ready to put their stamp on the game, especially on the international circuit,” the 34-year-old added.

After the tour opener in the ‘City of Joy’, the two teams travel to Chennai where the second T20I takes place on Saturday. Rajkot (28 January), Pune (31 January) and Mumbai (2 February) host the remaining games of the series. The three-match ODI series then takes place in Nagpur, Cuttack and Ahmedabad, getting underway on 6 February and concluding on the 12th – a week before the ICC Champions Trophy gets underway.